GLASTONBURY, CONNECTICUT · FAMILY LAW + FAMILY-VIOLENCE DEFENSE
Your device use can be monitored. If you may be watched, use a safer device. Clearing your history can itself be noticed.
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233
CT Safe Connect: (888) 774-2900 — 24/7, by call, text, chat, or email
A restraining order is a civil court order. You do not need a police report, an arrest, or criminal charges to apply for one.
Under C.G.S. §46b-15, you may apply if you are a family or household member, or in a dating relationship, and you have been subjected to:
Physical violence is not required. Coercive control was added to Connecticut’s family-law definition of domestic violence by Public Act 21-78 (“Jennifer’s Law”). Jennifer’s Law is the common name for that public act, not a single statute section; its provisions were codified across several family-law statutes, including C.G.S. §46b-1(b), which defines domestic violence for purposes of Title 46b. Coercive control means a pattern of behavior that unreasonably interferes with your free will and personal liberty. The statute gives examples: isolating you from friends, relatives, or support; depriving you of basic necessities; controlling or monitoring your movements, communications, finances, or access to services; compelling you to act or not act through force, threat, or intimidation, including threats about immigration status; cruelty or threatened cruelty to animals to intimidate you; and sexual threats or coercion.
Many people who have experienced years of this do not realize it is covered. It is.
Coercive control is a basis for civil relief under C.G.S. §46b-15, not a standalone crime. Like any other allegation in an application, it remains subject to proof and to the court’s determination at the hearing.
You file an application and a sworn affidavit in the Superior Court for the judicial district where you live. There is no filing fee, and the cost of serving the respondent is paid by the Judicial Branch rather than by you. The forms are JD-FM-137 (application) and JD-FM-138 (affidavit), with JD-FM-164 where children are involved. Court clerks and family services staff can help with the forms, and domestic violence advocates can help you prepare — CT Safe Connect can connect you with an advocate in your area.
Your affidavit is the heart of the application. It should describe specific incidents with dates where you can, rather than general characterizations. What a judge needs is a picture of what actually happened.
If your application alleges an immediate and present physical danger, the court can issue an order the same day, before the other person has been heard. That order is temporary and it holds until the hearing.
An ex parte order is not a finding against the other person. It is the court acting quickly to prevent harm while it gets the full picture.
A hearing follows within 14 days. If your application indicates the respondent holds a pistol permit or certificate, or possesses firearms or ammunition, and an ex parte order has issued, the hearing is held within seven days of that order.
The respondent must be served at least three days before the hearing. If service has not been made in time, an ex parte order can be extended.
At the hearing, both sides can present evidence and testify. Bring what supports your account — messages, photographs, medical records, police reports if any exist, and witnesses if you have them.
Orders commonly prohibit contact, require the respondent to stay away from your home, workplace, or school, and restrain threatening, harassing, or assaulting you. An order can include provisions about children on a temporary basis, and can address animals.
No order lasts longer than one year, though you can ask to extend it before it expires.
Violating a restraining order is a crime under C.G.S. §53a-223b — a class D felony, or a class C felony where the violation involves restraint or threatening, harassing, or assaulting you. Call the police. You can also seek an expedited contempt hearing.
A restraining order is a civil order, not a criminal prosecution. It does not by itself produce charges against the other person, and it does not resolve custody or divorce issues — though it can run alongside them.
Served with a Connecticut restraining order application? What the ex parte order already requires, the firearms deadline, and how the hearing works.
Read more
How Connecticut restraining orders work under C.G.S. §46b-15 — applying, responding, the hearing, and what an order does. Glastonbury attorney Daniel M. Morton.
Read more
Every case starts with a conversation about what you’re facing and what it would take to handle it.
