§ 19-13-4.Protective orders and consent agreements; contents; delivery to sheriff; expiration; enforcement

This section is the menu of protection. Once a verified petition is filed, the court may grant any protective order, or approve any consent agreement the parties reach, to bring about a cessation of acts of family violence. Either one may include the relief listed in eleven paragraphs. Every item is something the court “may” order — the judge decides what fits the case.

The court may: (1) direct the respondent to refrain from family violence; (2) give a party possession of the residence and exclude the other party; (3) require a party to provide suitable alternate housing for a spouse, former spouse, or parent and the parties’ children; (4) award temporary custody of minor children and set temporary visitation; (5) evict a party and order help for the petitioner in returning to the home, or order help retrieving the petitioner’s personal property if the respondent hasn’t been evicted; (6) order either party to pay child support as required by law; (7) order either party to pay spousal support as required by law; (8) provide for possession of personal property, including care, custody and control of household pets, and order the respondent not to harass, harm, take, transfer, encumber or conceal a pet, or engage in conduct that would violate § 16-12-4; (9) order the respondent not to harass or interfere with the petitioner; (10) award costs and attorney’s fees to either party; and (11) order the respondent to receive appropriate psychiatric or psychological services. A “household pet” excludes livestock, laboratory animals, working animals, sport animals, and animals kept for a commercial purpose or for consumption.

The court can’t issue or approve mutual protective orders under paragraphs (1), (2), (5), (9) or (11) — the refrain-from-violence, home, eviction, no-harassment and counseling provisions — unless the respondent has filed a verified counter petition under § 19-13-3 no later than three days before the hearing, not counting Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, and the requirements of § 19-13-3 have been met. A respondent can’t get those orders against the petitioner by asking for them at the hearing.

The clerk sends a copy of the order to the sheriff of the county where it was entered, and the sheriff keeps it while the order is in effect. Any order under this section lasts up to one year. On the petitioner’s motion, with notice to the respondent and after a hearing, the court in its discretion may convert a temporary order to one effective for not more than three years, or to a permanent order. The order is effective throughout Georgia, and every superior court, sheriff, deputy sheriff and state, county or municipal law enforcement officer must enforce a valid order. Violations are addressed in § 19-13-6. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. The section was last amended in 2025.