Inside District Court Protective Order Cases Continued from page 20
Waiver to the Final Hearing by Agreement of the Parties
Both parties may agree, at the temporary hearing, to have
their final order hearing in place of the temporary hearing. Where Respondent appears at the temporary order hearing, has been served with the interim protective order, or the court otherwise has personal jurisdiction over the respondent (for example, if the Respondent is incarcerated and has been transported to the Protective Order Hearing) and, both Petitioner and Respondent expressly consent to waiving the temporary protective order hearing, the court may immediately proceed with the final protective order hearing.
The Final Protective Order Hearing Consent Orders At the final hearing, the parties may consent to the
entry of a protective order instead of presenting evidence and testimony. Such a consent order will be entered without the court making findings that abuse occurred. Proceeding
FL-MAJ-7x4.5-BW-glova.pdf 11/27/2010 1:09:08 PM
in this fashion eliminates the need for a full hearing, which may for some, be harmful to the parties, their children and/ or future relations. A consent order, however, is like any other order of the court and will be entered by the court as a public record with the names of Respondent and Petitioner attached. Counsel for the parties should advise their clients of this aspect of a consent order.
The Contested Hearing In order for the court to grant a final order, the court must
find by clear and convincing evidence the abuse alleged has occurred. Clear and convincing evidence has been described as “evidence presented that is highly and substantially more probable to be true than not and the trier of fact must have a firm belief or conviction in its factuality.” 10
Address Issues on Which the Court Can Make a Decision
At this stage, the function of the court is to determine whether abuse occurred, and if so, fashion appropriate relief based upon the facts and evidence. It is not the function of the court to make decisions or judgments about the entire relationship of the parties.
10 See Katsenelenbogen v. Katsenelenbogen, 135 Md. App. 317, 338-339 (2000); Ricker v. Ricker, 114.
Many times the parties wish to
22 Trial Reporter / Summer 2012
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68