Maryland Peace Order Statute: Filing, Penalties, and Firearms

A Maryland peace order is a civil court order that requires someone outside your family or household to stop harassing, stalking, threatening, or otherwise targeting you. You file the petition in District Court within 30 days of the incident, and if a judge finds the conduct qualifies and is likely to continue, the final order can last up to six months and include no-contact, stay-away, and other protections. Peace orders cover disputes between neighbors, coworkers, acquaintances, and strangers. If the person is a spouse, former spouse, relative, someone you live with or share a child with, or a recent sexual partner, you file a protective order under the Family Law Article instead.

What Conduct Qualifies

The peace order statute, in Title 3, Subtitle 15 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, lists specific acts that can support a petition. The respondent must have committed one of them against you within the past 30 days:1Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Courts and Judicial Proceedings 3-1503

Being uncomfortable or annoyed by someone is not enough. The conduct has to fit one of the listed acts, and you also need to show a reasonable belief it will continue.

Who Can File

Any adult who has been targeted by one of these acts can file. For a minor, a parent, guardian, or legal representative files on the child’s behalf. Maryland also lets an employer file a peace order petition for an employee when the qualifying act happened at the workplace; the order protects the employee.1Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Courts and Judicial Proceedings 3-1503

The petition is filed under oath. Knowingly putting false information in it is a misdemeanor.

How to File

Peace orders are filed only in District Court, and Maryland’s system has three tiers of protection depending on when you file and how far the case progresses.1Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Courts and Judicial Proceedings 3-1503

Interim Peace Order

If you need help when the courthouse is closed, go to a District Court commissioner. Commissioners are available nights, weekends, and holidays. If the commissioner finds reasonable grounds to believe the respondent committed a qualifying act and is likely to do it again, the commissioner can issue an interim peace order right there. That order lasts until a temporary order hearing before a judge, generally by the second business day after issuance. Relief is limited to what is minimally necessary: stop the conduct, no contact, and stay away from your home, workplace, or school.8Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Courts and Judicial Proceedings 3-1503.1

Temporary Peace Order

During regular hours you file at the District Court clerk’s office using form DC-PO-001. The filing fee is $56 and the sheriff’s service fee is $60.9Maryland Courts. District Court of Maryland Cost Schedule The filing fee can be waived for financial hardship; the service fee cannot.

A judge reviews the petition, usually the same day, in an ex parte hearing where only you appear. If the judge finds reasonable grounds to believe a qualifying act occurred and is likely to recur, the judge issues a temporary peace order with the same categories of relief as an interim order. A temporary order is effective for up to seven days after the respondent is served, and it can be extended up to 30 days if service is difficult or for other good cause.10Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Courts and Judicial Proceedings 3-1504

Final Peace Order

The final hearing is set within seven days after the respondent is served with the temporary order, absent a continuance for good cause. Both sides appear. The respondent can bring a lawyer, present evidence, and call witnesses; so can you. You have to prove by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not, that the respondent committed a qualifying act and is likely to do so again. That is a lower standard than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard used in criminal court.11Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Courts and Judicial Proceedings 3-1505

If the respondent was properly served but does not appear, the judge can proceed and enter the final order. If both sides filed petitions against each other, the judge can issue mutual orders, but only after finding that each party independently committed a qualifying act.

Either party can appeal a peace order decision to the Circuit Court, where the case is heard de novo (started over with new evidence).

What a Final Order Can Require

A final peace order lasts up to six months and can be extended for another six months if you show good cause before it expires. The judge is required to limit relief to what is minimally necessary to protect you, and the order can include any combination of these:11Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Courts and Judicial Proceedings 3-1505

  • No contact with you, directly or through third parties
  • Stay away from your home
  • Stay away from your workplace, school, or temporary residence
  • Stop committing or threatening any of the qualifying acts
  • Attend professionally supervised counseling, or mediation if both parties agree
  • Pay filing fees and court costs
  • In visual surveillance cases, remove or reposition the surveillance device within 15 days

Courts tailor the order to the facts. If you and the respondent work in the same building, for example, the stay-away language will account for that.

What Happens If the Order Is Violated

Violating any peace order, interim, temporary, or final, is a misdemeanor. A law enforcement officer can arrest the respondent without a warrant based on probable cause that the order was breached.12Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Courts and Judicial Proceedings 3-1508

  • First offense: up to 90 days in jail, a fine up to $1,000, or both.
  • Second or subsequent offense: up to one year in jail, a fine up to $2,500, or both.

Those penalties are for the violation itself. If the underlying conduct is also a separate crime, like stalking or assault, prosecutors can charge that separately. The two are independent, so a respondent can face both.

Firearm Restrictions

The federal law that bars firearm possession for people under certain protective orders applies to orders protecting an “intimate partner” or that partner’s child.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 922 – Unlawful Acts Because Maryland peace orders cover non-domestic relationships, the typical peace order between neighbors, coworkers, or strangers does not trigger the federal firearm ban. It can apply if the person on the other side of the order would also qualify as an intimate partner under the federal definition.

Enforcement If You Travel or Move

Under the Violence Against Women Act, every state must honor a valid protection order issued by another state’s court as long as the respondent had notice and an opportunity to be heard.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 2265 – Full Faith and Credit Given to Protection Orders A Maryland final peace order qualifies, and interim and temporary orders qualify as long as the respondent gets notice and a hearing within a reasonable time, which Maryland’s process provides. No prior registration in the other state is required. Keep a copy of the order with you when you travel; officers unfamiliar with Maryland forms will move faster if they can see the document.

Shielding the Record

Peace order cases become part of the public court record and can turn up in background checks. You or the respondent can ask the court to shield the record, but only in narrow circumstances: the petition was denied or dismissed, or the respondent consented to the order rather than having one imposed after a contested hearing. Either way, the shielding request generally cannot be filed until three years after the dismissal or consent order, unless the requesting party files a general waiver and release of all tort claims tied to the proceeding.15Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Courts and Judicial Proceedings 3-1510

For a denied or dismissed petition, the court must grant shielding after confirming no final peace order or protective order was previously issued against the respondent involving the same petitioner, no related criminal conviction exists, and no related case is pending. Shielding removes the case from public access on the Judiciary website and restricts access to the physical file, though law enforcement, the attorneys who represented either party, prosecutors, and certain government employees can still see it for legitimate purposes.

There is no shielding option when a final peace order was granted after a contested hearing. If a judge issued the order over the respondent’s objection, that record stays public.