The rest of what we have written about Nebraska. Every figure is quoted from Nebraska’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Protective orders and restraining orders in Nebraska
Who can ask for one, what you have to show, what a judge can order, what it costs, and what happens if it is broken — quoted from Nebraska’s own statutes, not summarized.
See a different stateNebraska
Nebraska issues domestic abuse protection orders. The first thing to know is a housekeeping point that affects almost every guide you will read: the governing section has been renumbered, and the citation most sources still use is wrong. That is dealt with first, followed by what a Nebraska order can do — including removing someone from your home regardless of whose name is on it — and the narrow 45-day window in which an order must be renewed.
Before anything else
The section number changed, and most guidance has it wrong
If you look up Nebraska protection orders, most of what you will find — including pages published by reputable organizations — cites Neb. Rev. Stat. s. 42-924. That citation is out of date.
The provision has been transferred to s. 26-103, in the newer chapter 26 of the statutes, "Courts; Protection Orders". Looking up 42-924 today returns nothing but a note recording the transfer.
If a guide you are reading cites 42-924, it predates the move — and it is worth asking what else in it may be out of date. When you are putting a section number into a document, use 26-103.
What the judge can actually order
The statutory relief
Read the last four words of that second provision, because they answer the question people most often assume defeats them. Regardless of the ownership. It does not matter whose name is on the lease or the deed. A Nebraska court can remove the respondent from your residence even where the property is legally theirs.
The order may also prohibit the respondent from possessing a firearm; grant temporary custody of minor children, for a period not exceeding 90 days; and award possession of a household pet.
The custody provision is expressly short. Ninety days is a stopgap, not a resolution, and you will need to deal with custody properly elsewhere before it runs out.
The order after a hearing
One to two years, renewable each year
A final Nebraska protection order runs for between one and two years, and it can be renewed annually.
The renewal is where the deadline sits. A petition to renew is filed within the 45 days before the order expires. In deciding, the judge considers the likelihood of harm to you over the coming year.
Forty-five days is a narrow window — narrower than most states allow, and it opens and closes while nothing is happening to remind you. Put two dates in your calendar the day you receive the order: the expiry date, and the date 45 days before it. The second is the one that matters.
Note what the renewal test is and is not. It looks forward — the likelihood of harm over the next year — rather than asking whether anything new happened while the order was in force. A quiet year is not a reason to lose your protection.
What it costs
Fees
Nothing. There is no fee to file for a domestic abuse protection order in Nebraska, and no fee to have it served.
There is one exception, and it is narrow: if a judge finds that the petition was filed in bad faith and contained false statements, costs may be ordered against the person who filed it. That is a sanction for deliberate abuse of the process, not a risk that attaches to a petition that simply does not succeed.
If they break it
Mandatory arrest, and the felony step
Knowingly violating a Nebraska protection order is a Class I misdemeanour. Where the person has a prior conviction for violating any protection order, it becomes a Class IV felony.
Note the breadth of that: a prior conviction for violating any protection order counts, not only the one currently in force.
Nebraska also imposes a duty on police. Law enforcement is required to arrest where there is probable cause that the order has been violated — and the judge must then issue a no-contact order.
Because arrest is mandatory rather than discretionary, what you report and what you can show matters directly. Keep messages, note dates and times, and keep the proof of service.
Worth knowing about Nebraska
The things that are different here
The citation moved. It is s. 26-103, not s. 42-924. Most published guidance has not caught up.
"Regardless of the ownership." A court can exclude the respondent from your home whoever owns it.
One to two years, renewable annually — but the renewal window is only the 45 days before expiry.
No filing fee and no service fee.
Mandatory arrest on probable cause of a violation.
A prior conviction for violating any protection order makes the next violation a Class IV felony.
Household pets are covered, and temporary custody is capped at 90 days.
Important: Nebraska moved this entire law in 2025
If you are reading anything about Nebraska protection orders that cites chapter 42 of the Revised Statutes, it is describing a scheme that no longer sits there. LB 80 (2025) consolidated domestic abuse, harassment and sexual assault protection orders into a single new chapter 26, the Protection Orders Act, and two 2026 bills have already amended it.
What changed, and where things now live
“Sections 26-101 to 26-125 shall be known and may be cited as the Protection Orders Act.”
The practical map:
- § 26-103 — domestic abuse protection order: petition, contents, relief granted
- § 26-110 — term of the order
- § 26-111 — renewal
- § 26-118 — violation and penalties
- § 26-119 — arrest for violation
- § 26-125 — conflict of law
One thing did not move, and it trips people up. The definitions of “abuse” and “family or household members” are still in chapter 42. Section 26-102 says so expressly: “Abuse has the same meaning as in section 42-903” and “Family or household members has the same meaning as in section 42-903.” So you will be reading across two chapters.
How long a Nebraska order lasts
§ 26-110 — and this is new
“A protection order may be issued for an initial period of at least one year and no more than two years, unless dismissed or modified by the court. The length of the initial period shall be set at the court’s discretion based upon the evidence presented. When issued, the protection order shall specify its effective initial period.”
Under the old chapter 42 scheme the term was a flat one year. It is now a discretionary range of one to two years, decided on the evidence. That is worth knowing before your hearing, because it means the length of your order is something you can argue for. If the history is long, the escalation serious, or the respondent is someone you will be tied to for years through children or property, say so and ask for two.
Renewal — and a deadline that does not forgive
§ 26-111(1): “Such petition and affidavit for renewal shall be filed any time within forty-five days before the expiration of the protection order, including the date the order expires.”
Forty-five days, and the window closes on the expiry date itself. There is no grace period afterwards. Miss it and you are filing a fresh petition, not a renewal. Put a reminder in your phone for sixty days before your order ends.
Renewal can be granted on your affidavit alone — stating there has been no material change in relevant circumstances and why you want it renewed — if you seek no modification and either the respondent was properly served and fails to appear, or indicates they do not contest it (§ 26-111(2)).
Note the trade-off in subsection (3): a renewed order runs one year, not one to two. The longer term is available on the initial order only.
Penalties for violating a Nebraska order — a new four-tier ladder
§ 26-118, as amended by LB 965 (2026), operative 18 July 2026
For a domestic abuse or sexual assault protection order, or a recognized foreign one, a knowing violation is:
Class I misdemeanor
Class IV felony
Class IIIA felony
Class IIA felony
The third and fourth tiers are new in 2026. Any source telling you Nebraska runs a two-step “misdemeanor, then Class IV felony” ladder is describing the law as it was before 18 July 2026.
Harassment protection orders sit on a lower scale: “a Class II misdemeanor for a first offense and a Class I misdemeanor for any second or subsequent offense.”
Two details in the opening words of § 26-118 are worth noticing. It applies to a violation “by any person, except the petitioner” — you cannot be prosecuted for violating an order made for your protection. And it requires a knowing violation after service or notice.
Arrest — § 26-119
“A peace officer shall with or without a warrant arrest a person if: (1) The officer has probable cause to believe that the person has committed a violation of a protection order … and (2) A petitioner or person protected by a protection order … provides the peace officer with a copy of such order or the peace officer determines that such an order exists after communicating with the local law enforcement agency.”
“Shall.” Arrest is mandatory once both conditions are met, not a matter for the officer’s judgment. And note the second condition can be satisfied either way — by you producing the order, or by the officer checking with dispatch. Carrying a copy makes it faster and removes an excuse, which is why it is worth doing, but the statute does not make your copy a precondition.
What a Nebraska judge can order
§ 26-103(2) — the full list of relief
The court may issue an order, without bond, granting any of:
“(a) Enjoining the respondent from imposing any restraint upon the petitioner or upon the liberty of the petitioner; (b) … from threatening, assaulting, molesting, attacking, or otherwise disturbing the peace of the petitioner; (c) … from telephoning, contacting, or otherwise communicating with the petitioner; (d) Removing and excluding the respondent from the residence of the petitioner, regardless of the ownership of the residence; (e) Ordering the respondent to stay away from any place specified by the court; (f) Awarding the petitioner temporary custody of any minor children for a period not to exceed ninety days …; (g) Enjoining the respondent from possessing or purchasing a firearm as defined in section 28-1201; (h) Directing that the petitioner have sole possession of any household pet …; (i) Enjoining the respondent from coming into contact with, harming, or killing any household pet …; or (j) Ordering such other relief deemed necessary to provide for the safety and welfare of the petitioner.”
Three things to pull out. (d) — whose name is on the lease or deed does not matter. (g) — Nebraska has an express firearms provision, so this is one of the states where the state order itself can bar possession and purchase, independently of the federal rule. (h) and (i) — pets are covered, and § 26-103(3) makes clear that possession lasts for the life of the order and does not decide ownership permanently.
The limit to watch is (f): temporary custody under a protection order runs no more than ninety days. That is a stopgap, not a custody solution. If children are involved you will need a custody case running alongside, and ninety days is not long to start one.
▸ See how this compares — all 50 states, side by side
The part that is the same in every state
An order from one state works in all of them
This is federal law and it does not change at a state line. An order issued by one state, tribe or territory must be enforced by every other as if that state had issued it. And you do not have to register it in the new state first — registration is optional, not a precondition to enforcement.
The same section also says the enforcing state must not tell the restrained person that the order has been registered there unless the protected person asks it to, and must not publish anything online that would be likely to reveal the protected person’s identity or location.
The federal firearms rule needs a hearing first
This is the single most misunderstood point in the whole subject, and it cuts against what most people assume. The federal prohibition at 18 U.S.C. s. 922(g)(8) reaches a person subject to an order only where three things are true: the order was made after a hearing of which they had actual notice and at which they had a chance to take part; it restrains them in relation to an intimate partner or that partner’s child; and it either carries a credible-threat finding or expressly forbids the use of force.
So an emergency or ex parte order does not trigger the federal prohibition on its own — there has been no hearing yet. State law may go further, and many states do, which is why the state rule is set out on this page separately. In United States v. Rahimi (2024) the Supreme Court upheld s. 922(g)(8), holding that “When an individual has been found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another, that individual may be temporarily disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment.”
This rule is narrower than it looks, and the detail matters. Who counts as an “intimate partner” is a defined term that excludes dating partners you never lived with; the two halves of the third condition are not equally settled after Rahimi; and there is a separate federal route based on convictions rather than orders, which does reach dating partners. We set all of it out, quoted from the United States Code, on one page: Guns and protection orders — the federal rule.
How does this state compare? Ten states do nothing at all about firearms on a protection order; fourteen prohibit possession but give the court no way to collect them. All fifty side by side: which states actually take the guns.
You should not be charged for this — in any state
This is settled, and it is worth knowing before you walk into a courthouse. Under 34 U.S.C. s. 10450, a state applying for STOP grant funding must certify to the Attorney General that its "laws, policies, and practices do not require" a victim to bear the costs associated with the filing, issuance, registration, modification, enforcement, dismissal, withdrawal or service of a protection order or a petition for one — nor the costs of filing criminal charges, or of warrants and witness subpoenas. A jurisdiction that does charge has its funds withheld and redistributed to the states that do not.
Every state receives STOP funding and every state has certified compliance. The practical consequence, in the words of the National Center on Protection Orders and Full Faith & Credit, is that victims "should not be required to pay such costs in any state". That covers having the papers served on the other person, which is the charge people are most often asked for.
Two honest qualifications. The provision does not stop a court charging the respondent — many states order costs against them, and that is permitted. And it is a funding condition rather than a direct federal ban, so what a clerk does on a given day can still be wrong. If you are asked to pay a fee for any of the things listed above, you can say that your state has certified under 34 U.S.C. s. 10450 that it does not charge for them. Advocates can also raise it with the National Center on Protection Orders and Full Faith & Credit on 1-800-903-0111, prompt 2.
Where this state’s own statute says so expressly, that is quoted above.
Authority: Neb. Rev. Stat. ch. 26, the Protection Orders Act, as created by Laws 2025, LB 80, and amended by Laws 2026, LB 753, LB 935 and LB 965 (operative 18 July 2026). Short title at s. 26-101. Definitions at s. 26-102, which adopts the definitions of "abuse" and "family or household members" from s. 42-903. Domestic abuse protection order, petition and relief at s. 26-103. Term at s. 26-110. Renewal at s. 26-111. Violation and penalties at s. 26-118. Arrest at s. 26-119. Conflict of law at s. 26-125. The former ch. 42 protection order provisions were transferred by LB 80. Checked 29 Aug 2026.
How we checked this page
Every quotation on this page was read in the source named in the Authority line above, not taken from a summary or another website. On this date we also re-checked every section cited for repeal, renumbering or amendment since 2024 — the sweep that caught North Dakota’s chapter being repealed and replaced, and Nebraska’s moving to an entirely new title.
One thing we could not do, and we would rather say so:
- The chapter is new and still moving. Chapter 26 was created in 2025 and amended three times in 2026 (LB 753, LB 935, LB 965). Case law interpreting it will be thin for some time, and any Nebraska guidance written before July 2026 — including the penalty ladder — may be describing superseded law. If a source cites chapter 42 for the protection order scheme itself, it is out of date.
What we cannot promise is that nothing has changed since this date. Quote the words with confidence; check a section number before you put it in a filing. And if anything here does not match what a clerk or judge tells you, the court is right and we are wrong — tell us and we will fix it.
We keep a public record of every time we have got the law wrong on these pages, what caused it, and how long it was live: where we were wrong.
If there are children
What Nebraska presumes about custody, and the emergency jurisdiction that exists when someone has to leave the state.