To get a restraining order in Utah, you file a petition for a protective order or civil stalking injunction at your district court, at no cost, and a judge can sign a temporary ex parte order the same day if your petition shows abuse or stalking. A full hearing follows within 21 days, and once the respondent is served, the order is enforceable by police.
Pick the Right Type of Order
Utah Code Title 78B, Chapter 7 sets up different orders for different situations, and the one you file determines what you have to prove.
A cohabitant abuse protective order is the most common. It covers domestic violence, physical harm, threats, and sexual violence when the other person is or was your spouse, someone you lived with as though married, a blood relative or in-law up to the second degree, someone you share a child with, or someone you had a consensual sexual relationship with. You must be at least 16 or legally emancipated to file, and a parent or guardian can file on behalf of a minor child.
A dating violence protective order applies when the person harmed you but you never lived together and don’t share a child. It covers current and former dating partners and offers the same protections as a cohabitant order.
A sexual violence protective order is for victims of sexual violence who don’t qualify as cohabitants or dating partners. It covers offenses from rape and sexual abuse to distribution of intimate images and sexual extortion. You cannot file this type on behalf of a child.
A civil stalking injunction requires no particular relationship. You qualify if you’ve been the victim of a “course of conduct” involving two or more acts directed at you that caused fear of bodily harm or significant emotional distress. Those acts include following, monitoring, surveilling, showing up at your workplace, sending unwanted materials, or contacting or tracking you electronically. You’ll need corroborating evidence with the petition: a police report, affidavit, screenshots, letters, or similar documentation.
Fill Out the Petition
Judges want specifics. Before you touch the forms, write down every incident you can remember with dates, times, locations, and what happened. Have on hand the names, addresses, and contact information for you, the respondent, and any children who need protection.
Pull together the supporting evidence you already have. Police reports carry weight. So do medical records documenting injuries, photographs of damage or bruises, saved texts and emails, voicemails, and written statements from witnesses. You don’t need every category. The more concrete evidence you attach, the easier your judge’s decision becomes.
You can prepare the forms through the Utah Courts website using MyPaperwork, which walks you through the questions and generates the documents. Paper forms are also available at any district court clerk’s office and at domestic violence shelters across the state.
If you’re worried that filing court paperwork will expose your home address, Utah’s Safe at Home program provides a legal substitute address and mail forwarding for survivors of domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault, and human trafficking. Enrollment goes through a certified program assistant, reachable at 1-833-747-7233 or through the Safe at Home website.
Where to File and What It Costs
File at the district court clerk’s office in the county where you live, where the respondent lives, or where the abuse happened. If you’re filing on behalf of a minor child, file in juvenile court in the relevant county instead. Bring the original completed forms and several copies.
There is no filing fee. Utah law prohibits courts, clerks, constables, and law enforcement from charging you anything to file the petition, obtain an ex parte order, get certified copies for service, or serve the order on the respondent. This applies to every protective order and civil stalking injunction under Chapter 7.
The Same-Day Temporary Order
After you submit the petition, a judge reviews it, often the same day. If the judge finds reason to believe abuse or stalking has occurred, the court can issue a temporary ex parte protective order right away, without notice to the respondent. “Ex parte” means the judge is acting on your petition alone before the other side has a chance to respond.
A temporary cohabitant abuse or dating violence order can immediately bar the respondent from contacting you or coming near your home, school, workplace, or place of worship. It can grant you temporary custody of your children, give you possession of a shared vehicle and essential personal belongings, and prohibit the respondent from purchasing or possessing firearms if the court finds their access to weapons poses a serious threat. The court can also order a law enforcement officer to accompany you when you go back to retrieve belongings.
A civil stalking injunction works a little differently at this stage. Once the ex parte order is served, the respondent has 10 days to request a hearing in writing. If they don’t, the ex parte order automatically becomes a final civil stalking injunction with no hearing at all.
If the judge denies your ex parte petition, you have five days to request a full hearing, and the court must then schedule it within 21 days and notify the respondent.
The Hearing
For cohabitant abuse and dating violence orders, the court sets a hearing within 21 days of issuing the temporary order. This is the respondent’s chance to contest the order and your chance to present your full case. The court can extend that window in limited situations, such as when the respondent hasn’t been served, but an ex parte order cannot stay in effect longer than 180 days without a hearing.
Both sides can testify, call witnesses, and submit evidence at the hearing. Organize your police reports, medical records, communications, photographs, and witness list before you walk in. If the respondent doesn’t appear, the judge can still issue a final protective order based on your evidence alone. The statute authorizes the court to grant any of the available relief “regardless of whether the respondent appears.”
If attending in person feels unsafe or isn’t practical, ask the court to let you appear by video or phone. Send the request to the court and all other parties at least seven days before the hearing, with the case number in the subject line. The court must grant it unless there’s a specific reason to deny it, such as a safety or technology issue, and must explain any denial.
A final order can carry every protection in the temporary order plus additional provisions: no-contact terms covering direct and third-party communication, stay-away distances from your home, school, workplace, and place of worship, firearms restrictions, temporary child custody and parent-time terms, use of a shared vehicle and essential property, transfer of a wireless phone number after a full hearing, and protection for household animals. If you and the respondent share a school, employer, or place of worship, the court cannot bar them from that shared location entirely but can impose conduct restrictions governing how they behave there.
Serving the Respondent
The order isn’t enforceable until the respondent has been formally served. You cannot serve it yourself. Any other adult who isn’t a party to the case can serve it, or you can have law enforcement deliver it. Law enforcement service is free for protective orders and civil stalking injunctions.
Once service is complete, proof of service is filed with the court. The clerk gives you one certified copy of the order and one certified copy of the proof of service at no charge. If the respondent can’t be located, the court may authorize an alternative method of service, though that can delay enforcement.
How Long the Order Lasts
A cohabitant abuse protective order issued after a hearing remains in effect “until further order of the court.” It doesn’t expire on its own, and you don’t need to renew it. The respondent can petition to dismiss it, but only after it has been in place at least a year and only if the court finds all three of these: the original basis no longer exists, you repeatedly acted to intentionally provoke a violation, and your actions show you no longer have a reasonable fear of the respondent. Courts set a deliberately high bar.
A civil stalking injunction expires three years after the day the ex parte order was served. If you still need protection then, you can file a new petition.
If the Respondent Violates the Order
Violating a protective order is a criminal offense, not just contempt of court. Any violation of a civil stalking injunction is a class A misdemeanor, carrying up to 364 days in jail. Violating a permanent criminal stalking injunction is a third degree felony, and a second felony-level violation becomes a second degree felony.
A respondent subject to a protective order who possesses a firearm also faces federal charges under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8). Utah law requires that the respondent be told at service that they are a restricted person who cannot purchase, transfer, use, or possess any firearm, and they must sign an acknowledgment. They then have 10 days to lawfully transfer any firearms they already have.
If the respondent violates the order, call 911. Officers can arrest on the spot. Document the violation and report it to the court as well; repeated violations strengthen future petitions and can lead to enhanced charges.