Case Summary:

Petitioner sought a restraining order (RO) against Respondent (my client) for alleged abused. The court granted Petitioner's request for the RO at the conclusion of an ex-parte hearing (a hearing where only the petitioner knows about it and gets to testify). After Respondent was served notice of the RO he denied the allegations and demanded a hearing. At the hearing the judge terminated the RO.

Attorney Comments:

"I don't generally write about civil cases. While a civil case is critically important to the parties involved in them, they don't show specific instances of government conduct. However, this case highlights how a court process can, and is, used abusively and our system has no legitimate check in place to stop it.

The Petitioner is my client's daughter. Approximately 3 years prior to this incident she filed for, and was granted, a RO against my client. We contested that RO and after hearing the judge terminated the RO. My client denied all of the daughter's alleged acts of abuse. Instead, we contended that these false allegations were a result of the daughter trying to manipulate my client to give her more money and/or try to remove my client as the trustee of a trust. By the end of the hearing the judge could tell that the daughter's allegations had little to no merit.

Fast forward and the daughter, once again, secured a RO against my client. My client denied the allegations and demanded a hearing. Once again it was clear to us the daughter was using the RO process to manipulate my client and/or terminate his status as trustee of the trust. At the hearing, sometime during the middle of our cross examination of the Petitioner (daughter), the judge stopped me. It had become clear to the judge what she was doing and not only did he terminate the RO, but scolded the daughter that if she brought another RO request against my client and it appeared to the court that the basis may be a financial one that he would hold her in contempt.

This is not a story that I tell because this is necessarily a happy ending. My client spent thousands of dollars defending these allegations. This system is set up in such a way that there is not really a legitimate process in place to screen non-meritorious actions from meritorious ones."

Jackson County, Oregon

Actual Case Summaries
Be advised that I never promise a client a particular outcome, details of prior cases should not be taken as an indication that other clients will necessarily see the same results.