GLASTONBURY, CONNECTICUT · FAMILY LAW + FAMILY-VIOLENCE DEFENSE
If you were arrested for a family violence offence, the court can enter a protective order at your arraignment — before anything has been proven, and often before you have spoken to a lawyer.
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233
CT Safe Connect: (888) 774-2900 — 24/7, by call, text, chat, or email
A criminal protective order is entered under C.G.S. §46b-38c(e) while the criminal case is pending, as a condition of your bail or release. It can restrain you from imposing any restraint on the protected person, from threatening, harassing, assaulting or molesting them, and from entering their residence. It can also include provisions protecting animals.
Orders come in tiers. Some bar contact entirely. Some bar you from the residence but permit limited contact. Some are narrower still.
It can keep you out of a home you own or rent, and it can restrict contact with your children, while the case is pending.
If a protective order is entered over your objection at arraignment, you are entitled to a hearing within a reasonable time.
That hearing is frequently the most consequential thing available early in a case, and it is routinely waived by people who did not know it existed or who assumed nothing could be done. If the terms are broader than the circumstances justify — particularly where children or a residence are involved — that is the moment to address it.
A standing criminal protective order is not the same thing, and conflating the two causes real confusion.
It is issued under C.G.S. §53a-40e after a conviction, or a finding of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, for qualifying offences. It lasts for the duration the court sets, until modified or revoked for good cause, and it can be very long.
Violating one is charged separately under C.G.S. §53a-223a.
P.A. 26-32, effective October 1, 2026, amending §53a-40e(a): where a court declines to issue a standing criminal protective order following a qualifying family violence conviction or finding, it must now state its reasons on the record.
Follow it exactly, including terms you believe are unjustified. Violating a protective order is a separate crime with serious exposure, and it is the most common way a manageable case becomes a serious one.
If the order needs to change — because of children, a residence, or a genuine practical necessity — that is done through the court, not by agreement with the protected person.
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Every case starts with a conversation about what you’re facing and what it would take to handle it.
