Rule 5.630.Restraining orders

Once a petition is filed under section 300, 601 or 602, the juvenile court may issue restraining orders, and it keeps that power until the petition is dismissed or the dependency or wardship ends — or, for a ward, until probation ends. For the child who is the subject of a dependency petition, and for any other child in the household, that jurisdiction is exclusive: no other court issues the order. The court may also act on its own motion, and the definition of abuse comes from the Family Code.

An application can be made three ways: orally at any scheduled hearing about the child, in writing, or on the court’s own motion. The written route uses form JV-245, or JV-258 where the person to be restrained is the child in a delinquency case, and it must be accompanied by a completed Confidential CLETS Information form. Where the application is about domestic violence it may be filed without notice and a temporary order may issue at once; where it is not, the ordinary notice rules for injunctions apply. Before granting a temporary order the court must consider everything filed with the application and may read the juvenile file. Every temporary order states its own expiration date on its face.

Continuances run one way in particular: the court must grant one request by the restrained party for a reasonable time to respond. The hearing itself may be held alongside a dependency or wardship hearing, proof may come from the papers, the file, live testimony or any mixture of them, and the timing is fixed by statute.

Two service details matter. Every temporary or final juvenile restraining order goes out with a blank firearms receipt and the accompanying information sheet — though failing to include them does not invalidate service of the order itself. And the Family Code’s firearm and ammunition relinquishment procedures apply.

Before ruling either way, the court must ensure a criminal records search has been run and must consider what it returns. If the search shows an outstanding warrant, or that the person is on parole or probation, the court follows the statutory procedure for that situation.

Finally, the order outlives the case. If the juvenile case is dismissed the restraining order stays in force until it expires or is terminated. While the case is open, changing or ending it is done on the court’s own motion or by a modification petition, recorded on form JV-257 with a fresh order after hearing; once the case is closed, the family law route applies.