California Family Code 6320: Covered Conduct, Orders, and Firearms

California Family Code Section 6320 is the statute that gives a family court the power to order someone to stop a wide range of abusive behavior toward a current or former partner, family member, or household member. It reaches well past physical violence. The statute authorizes orders against stalking, threatening, harassing, destroying personal property, contacting the other person by any method, and “disturbing the peace,” a category that captures psychological and emotional abuse, including coercive control. When a judge grants a Domestic Violence Restraining Order (DVRO), Section 6320 is the source of most of the specific prohibitions in that order.

What Conduct Section 6320 Covers

The statute lists the behaviors a court can prohibit. They include molesting, attacking, striking, stalking, threatening, sexually assaulting, battering, credibly impersonating, falsely personating, harassing, telephoning (including making annoying telephone calls), destroying personal property, contacting the other party either directly or indirectly by any means, coming within a specified distance of the other party, and disturbing the peace of the other party.¹

Family Code 6203, which defines “abuse” for the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, pulls all of this into the definition of abuse itself. Abuse means intentionally or recklessly causing or attempting to cause bodily injury, sexual assault, placing a person in reasonable apprehension of imminent serious bodily injury, or engaging in any behavior that could be enjoined under Section 6320. The statute states expressly that abuse is not limited to physical injury or assault.² A pattern of threatening text messages, relentless phone calls, or destroying a partner’s belongings qualifies. So does online impersonation.

Disturbing the Peace and Coercive Control

“Disturbing the peace of the other party” is the broadest ground in Section 6320, and often the most important. The statute defines it as conduct that destroys the mental or emotional calm of the other party, evaluated based on the totality of the circumstances. Conduct carried out directly, indirectly, or through a third party counts, and so does conduct carried out through technology, including social media, text messages, or internet-connected devices.¹

Section 6320 identifies coercive control as a form of disturbing the peace. Coercive control is a pattern of behavior that in purpose or effect unreasonably interferes with a person’s free will and personal liberty. The statute gives examples:

Isolating the other party from friends, relatives, or other sources of support.
Depriving the other party of basic necessities.
Controlling, regulating, or monitoring the other party’s movements, communications, daily behavior, finances, economic resources, or access to services.
Compelling the other party by force, threat of force, or intimidation (including threats based on actual or suspected immigration status) to engage in conduct the person has a right not to perform, or to abstain from conduct the person has a right to perform.
Engaging in reproductive coercion — control over another person’s reproductive autonomy through force, threat of force, or intimidation, which may include unreasonably pressuring the other party to become pregnant, deliberately interfering with contraception use, or attempting to control pregnancy outcomes.¹

The list is illustrative, not exhaustive. Any pattern that destroys the other person’s mental or emotional calm can qualify. For many petitioners, this is the provision that matters most. A home where one person has lost the ability to make basic decisions freely is abuse under California law, even if no one has ever been hit.

Orders a Court Can Issue Under Section 6320

Section 6320 is permissive. The court may issue an “ex parte” order (an order granted before the other side is heard) enjoining any of the listed conduct. The court can combine orders and tailor them to the situation.

Personal Conduct and Stay-Away Orders

The core of most DVROs is a personal conduct order prohibiting the restrained person from contacting, threatening, stalking, or harassing the protected person, and a stay-away order requiring the restrained person to remain a specified distance from the protected person, their home, workplace, vehicle, and the children’s school.¹ On a showing of good cause, protection can extend to other household or family members.

Pets

Section 6320 lets the court grant the petitioner exclusive care, possession, or control of any animal owned, possessed, leased, kept, or held by either party or a minor child residing in the home. The court can order the restrained person to stay away from the animal and forbid the restrained person from taking, transferring, concealing, molesting, attacking, striking, threatening, harming, or otherwise disposing of it.¹

Residence Exclusion

Family Code 6321 lets the court order the restrained person out of the shared home, even if that person owns it or is on the lease. The judge must find three things before issuing a residence exclusion order: the party staying has a legal right to possess the premises, the party being excluded has assaulted or threatens to assault the other party or a child in the care of either party, and physical or emotional harm would otherwise result.³ All three findings are required. Property ownership does not shield an abuser from being removed when the standard is met.

Custody and Visitation

Where minor children are involved, Family Code 6323 authorizes temporary custody and visitation orders as part of the DVRO, with the court’s focus on limiting the children’s exposure to domestic violence and ensuring the safety of all family members. If the petitioner has established a parent-child relationship and the other party has not, the court may grant temporary sole legal and physical custody to the petitioner and deny visitation to the other party until parentage is established.⁴

Who Can Ask for an Order Under Section 6320

A DVRO is only available where the parties have one of the domestic relationships listed in Family Code 6211. Those include spouses and former spouses, current or former cohabitants, people in a current or past dating or engagement relationship, people who have a child together, a child of either party, and relatives by blood or marriage within the second degree (parents, grandparents, siblings, in-laws).⁵

If the relationship doesn’t fit any of those categories, Section 6320 doesn’t apply. A neighbor, a coworker, a roommate who isn’t a dating or former dating partner, or a more distant relative falls outside the Domestic Violence Prevention Act. The right vehicle in that case is a civil harassment restraining order under Code of Civil Procedure 527.6, which has its own standards and process.⁶ Filing the wrong petition wastes time and leaves you unprotected while you refile.

How Long the Orders Last

After a hearing, the judge can issue stay-away, personal conduct, and residence exclusion orders lasting up to five years. If the order form itself does not specify a duration, it lasts three years from the date of issuance.⁷

Before the order expires, the protected person can ask the court to renew it, either for five additional years or permanently. The court can grant a renewal without any proof of new abuse since the original order was issued. Any custody, visitation, child support, or spousal support orders issued alongside the DVRO survive the protective order itself, even if it expires or is terminated.⁷ The standard a court applies at a full hearing is “reasonable proof of a past act or acts of abuse,” a lower bar than the criminal standard.⁸

Firearms Surrender

Any protective order issued under the Domestic Violence Prevention Act carries a firearms consequence. Family Code 6389 requires the court to order the restrained person to relinquish all firearms and ammunition in their possession or control. Surrender must happen immediately on request of a law enforcement officer, or within 24 hours of being served if no officer asks for them at the scene. The restrained person can turn the weapons over to law enforcement or sell or store them with a licensed gun dealer, and must file a receipt with the court and the serving agency within 48 hours. Failing to file that receipt is itself a violation of the order.⁹

Federal law overlaps. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), a person subject to a qualifying domestic violence restraining order cannot possess any firearm or ammunition. The federal bar applies once the restrained person has had notice and an opportunity to participate in a hearing, so it kicks in with the post-hearing order rather than a short-notice temporary one.¹⁰ Federal penalties are considerably steeper than the state equivalent.

What Happens If the Order Is Violated

Violating a DVRO is a crime under Penal Code 273.6. A first violation is a misdemeanor carrying up to one year in county jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. If the violation causes physical injury, the penalty includes a mandatory minimum of 30 days in jail (with narrow judicial discretion to reduce it in limited circumstances), a fine of up to $2,000, or both.¹¹

Repeat conduct escalates. A second conviction within seven years that involves an act of violence or a credible threat of violence can be charged as a felony. A second conviction within one year that results in physical injury carries a mandatory minimum of six months in county jail.¹¹ Prosecutors treat these cases as a priority, and every term in the written order is enforceable, including the no-contact and stay-away distances the court set under Section 6320.

1
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 6320 – Issuance of Orders
2
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 6203 – Abuse Defined
3
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 6321 – Residence Exclusion Order
4
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 6323 – Custody and Visitation Orders
5
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 6211 – Domestic Violence Defined
6
California Legislative Information. California Code CCP 527.6 – Harassment
7
California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 6345 – Duration of Restraining Order
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California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 6300 – Issuance of Orders
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California Legislative Information. California Code FAM 6389 – Firearms Relinquishment
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
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California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 273.6 – Violation of Protective Order