What Is a 258E Harassment Prevention Order in MA?

A 258E Harassment Prevention Order in MA is a civil court order under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 258E that protects you from harassment by someone who is not a family member, household member, or past or present romantic partner. It costs nothing to file, you can request one at your local District Court, Boston Municipal Court, or Superior Court, and a judge can issue same-day temporary protection if you’re at immediate risk.¹

Who the 258E Order Is For

Massachusetts has two main civil protection orders, and they divide along relationship lines. A 209A Abuse Prevention Order covers family members, household members, and people in a dating or intimate relationship. A 258E covers everyone else: a neighbor, a coworker, a classmate, a stranger, an acquaintance from online, a landlord, a customer. If the person harassing you doesn’t fit the 209A categories, 258E is the order you need.

The protections look similar on paper — no contact, stay away, criminal penalties for violation — but the qualifying conduct and legal standards are different. Filing the wrong type generally gets you redirected rather than tossed, but knowing which one you need saves a trip.

What Counts as Harassment Under Chapter 258E

The statute gives you two separate paths to qualify. You only need to meet one.

The first path is a pattern: three or more separate acts of deliberate and malicious conduct aimed at you, where each act was intended to cause fear, intimidation, abuse, or property damage. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held in O’Brien v. Borowski that “fear” here means fear of physical harm or physical damage to property, not generalized anxiety or hurt feelings.² Each individual act must reflect that harassing intent, but the court looks at the cumulative impact when deciding whether you were actually harmed.

The second path takes only a single act, but the act must be specific criminal conduct: forcing sexual relations through force, threat, or duress, or conduct meeting the definition of offenses like indecent assault and battery, rape, assault with intent to rape, enticement of a child, distribution of nude or sexual images without consent, or drugging someone for sexual intercourse.³

Rude speech, obscene gestures, or conduct that merely annoys you doesn’t meet the standard. The SJC rejected a constitutional challenge to the statute precisely because it limits prohibited conduct to “true threats” and “fighting words,” which the First Amendment doesn’t protect.²

How to File

Go to your local District Court, Boston Municipal Court, or Superior Court and ask for a 258E application. The package includes a complaint form, an affidavit where you describe the harassment, a confidential information form for your personal details, and a defendant information form. There’s no filing fee, and certified copies are also free.⁴

The affidavit is the heart of your filing. Lay out the specific incidents: dates, times, locations, and what happened. Bring the evidence you have — text messages, emails, screenshots, voicemails, photographs, names of witnesses. Concrete detail carries more weight than general descriptions.

The Temporary Ex Parte Order

A judge reviews your paperwork and speaks with you without the other person present. If the judge finds an immediate risk of harassment, the court can issue a temporary order the same day. It typically lasts up to 10 business days while police serve the respondent.¹

Service

If the respondent isn’t in court, the order goes to the appropriate police department for service. Police are expected to make a genuine and reasonable effort to hand it over directly. When the respondent’s whereabouts are unknown or the respondent is actively avoiding service, the judge can authorize alternatives such as delivery to a last known address, workplace, or email. Service by newspaper publication is not permitted.⁵

The Two-Party Hearing

Once the respondent has been served, the court schedules a hearing where both of you can appear, present evidence, and make arguments. The judge then decides whether to continue, modify, or end the order. If the respondent was properly served but doesn’t show up, the judge can still hold the hearing and extend the order.¹

What the Order Can Require

A 258E order can direct the respondent to do several things:

Stop all harassment and abuse against you.
Cease all contact, including phone calls, texts, emails, social media messages, and contact through third parties, unless the court specifically allows it.
Stay away from your home and workplace.
Pay you compensation for losses directly caused by the harassment, including lost earnings, medical expenses, property damage, the cost of changing locks, the cost of getting an unlisted phone number, and reasonable attorney’s fees.⁴

You can also ask the court to impound the case records, which limits public access to the details of your complaint. Impoundment is not automatic. You have to request it.⁴

How Long the Order Lasts and How to Extend It

An initial 258E order lasts up to one year. The order must state its expiration date and the date and time you need to return to court if you want it extended.⁴ Mark that date. Missing it is the most common way people lose their protection.

At the extension hearing, the court looks at whether you still need the order under a preponderance of the evidence standard.⁶ Here’s a detail worth knowing: the statute specifically says that the absence of any harassment while the order was in place is not, by itself, a reason to let it expire.⁴ The order itself may be the reason the harassment stopped.

An extension can run another year, a longer set period, or be made permanent. The court weighs the severity and frequency of the original harassment, any threats of future harm, and other relevant circumstances in choosing among those options.⁶

Either party can also ask the court to modify an existing order at any time if circumstances change. The other side must get notice and an opportunity to be heard before any change takes effect.⁴

What Happens If the Respondent Violates the Order

Violating a 258E order is a criminal offense. Any violation can lead to arrest without a warrant. On conviction, the respondent faces a fine of up to $5,000, imprisonment of up to two and a half years in a house of correction, or both. The court must also impose a mandatory $25 fine deposited into the state’s General Fund.⁷

The court can also order the respondent into a treatment program appropriate to the offense and can award you damages for losses from the violation, including lost earnings, medical expenses, property damage, and attorney’s fees. The criminal penalties don’t block you from pursuing separate civil remedies, and the court can enforce its own order through civil contempt proceedings.⁷

Firearms and Travel: What the Order Does and Doesn’t Reach

Federal law under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8) prohibits firearm possession by someone subject to a qualifying protection order, but the federal rule has specific requirements that don’t automatically match every 258E order. The order must have been issued after a hearing where the respondent had notice and an opportunity to participate, and it must restrain the respondent from harassing, stalking, or threatening an “intimate partner” or a child of that partner.⁸

The intimate partner limit matters. A 258E order against a stranger, neighbor, or coworker may not trigger the federal firearms ban, and neither does an ex parte temporary order where the respondent had no chance to participate. A 258E order entered after a two-party hearing against a current or former intimate partner, with a credible-threat finding or an explicit ban on physical force, does trigger it.⁸ Massachusetts state law may add firearms restrictions beyond the federal baseline, so if the respondent holds a firearms license, state consequences are a separate question for a lawyer.

Your 258E order doesn’t stop at the state line. Under the Violence Against Women Act, every state, tribe, and territory must give full faith and credit to protection orders from other jurisdictions and enforce them as if they were local. The issuing court must have had proper jurisdiction, and the respondent must have received reasonable notice and a chance to be heard. Ex parte temporary orders still travel as long as notice was given and a hearing is scheduled. Another state cannot refuse enforcement just because you haven’t registered the order there — federal law forbids using a registration requirement as an excuse.⁹

Keep a certified copy of the order with you when you travel. Out-of-state officers act faster when you hand them the document than when they have to verify it through a database.

1
Mass.gov. Request a Harassment Prevention Order
2
Justia. O’Brien v Borowski
3
Mass.gov. 258E Guideline 3:05 – Standard and Burden of Proof for c. 258E Order
4
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 258E Section 3
5
Mass.gov. 258E Guideline 6:04 – Service of Initial Orders After Notice on the Defendant
6
Mass.gov. 258E Guideline 6:07 – Further Extending an Initial Order After Notice on Its Expiration Date
7
Justia Law. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 258E Section 9
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2265