ANNE ARUNDEL, CALVERT, CHARLES, ST. MARY’S & PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTIES.
Domestic Violence Orders | Haskell & Dyer
When the Order Involves Family, the Stakes Reach Custody and Criminal Court.
Protective orders apply to people in close relationships: spouses, partners, family, and others who share a home. These cases tie directly into custody and criminal charges, and we handle that overlap on both sides.
Why These Cases Are Different
One incident can move through three courts at once.
A domestic protective order can run alongside a criminal case and a custody fight at the same time, and what happens in one affects the others. What you say in one case can be used in another. That is why these need to be handled together, not in pieces.
Who These Orders Cover
The Relationships and the Overlap
Two things set domestic protective orders apart: who they apply to, and the other cases they touch.
Who Qualifies
People in Close Relationships
Protective orders in Maryland apply to spouses and former spouses, partners, relatives, co-parents, and people who share or shared a home. If the other person does not fit one of those, a peace order is the right tool instead.
Where It Overlaps
Custody and Criminal Court
The same conduct behind a protective order can drive a custody decision and a criminal charge. An order can set temporary custody and decide who stays in the home. We handle how these pieces affect each other, rather than treating them separately.
What We Handle
The Pieces of a Domestic Order Case
These cases have moving parts in more than one courtroom. We cover the whole picture.
Spouses and partners
Family members
People who share a home
Custody and the home
The criminal overlap
Both sides of the order
Why It Matters
What These Cases Touch
A domestic order rarely stays in one lane. It can reach the parts of life that matter most.
Custody
Time with and access to your children
The Home
Who stays and who must leave
Criminal
A parallel charge and record
Contact
What contact is allowed, if any
How We Handle the Overlap
We treat the protective order, the custody question, and any criminal case as one connected problem, because that is how they actually work.
We See the Whole Case
We look at the order, the custody side, and any criminal charge together, so one move does not hurt another.
We Protect Your Children
Custody and access are often the real heart of these cases. We keep your relationship with your kids front and center.
We Guard the Criminal Side
What you say in the order case can surface in a criminal one. We make sure your defense is not undercut along the way.
We Work Both Sides
We represent petitioners seeking protection and respondents defending against an order, with the same care either way.
Common Questions
Domestic Violence Orders, Answered
Who counts as a domestic relationship for a protective order?
Maryland protective orders cover people in defined relationships: spouses and former spouses, people in or formerly in an intimate relationship who lived together, relatives by blood, marriage, or adoption, co-parents, and others who share a household. If the other person does not fit, a peace order is usually the right path. We confirm which one applies to your situation.
How does a protective order affect custody?
A lot. A protective order can set temporary custody and decide who stays in the family home, and the abuse findings behind it can carry into a later custody case. The two are closely linked, which is why we never handle one without thinking about the other. Protecting your relationship with your children is often the central goal.
Can a protective order lead to criminal charges?
The same conduct can support both a protective order and a separate criminal case, and they move on their own tracks. A protective order itself is civil, but violating it is a crime. Because statements in one case can affect the other, the two need to be handled with each other in mind, not in isolation.
Do you represent both petitioners and respondents?
Yes. We help people seeking a protective order who need protection and a strong case at the hearing, and we defend people responding to an order who face serious consequences and are not always guilty of what is alleged. Each side deserves real representation, and we give it.
There's also a criminal case. How do they affect each other?
They interact in important ways. Testimony and evidence from the protective order hearing can show up in the criminal case, and decisions in one can shape the other. Coordinating both matters, so what helps you in one courtroom does not hurt you in another. We handle them together for exactly that reason.
These Cases Are Connected. Your Defense Should Be Too.
When an order ties into custody and criminal court, the pieces have to work together. Reach out and we will handle the whole picture, on whichever side you are on.
Available 24/7: 240-687-0179
The Law Offices of Haskell & Dyer, LLC Practicing Law in Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, St. Mary’s, and Prince George’s Counties.
The Law Offices of Haskell & Dyer, LLC Practicing Law in Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, St. Mary’s, and Prince George’s Counties.
The Law Offices of Haskell & Dyer, LLC
Fax: 301-627-5848
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