The rest of what we have written about Texas. Every figure is quoted from Texas’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Protective orders and restraining orders in Texas
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 Texas’s own statute, not summarized.
See a different stateTexas
Texas has four separate orders and they are not interchangeable.
1. The family violence protective order. This is the ordinary civil order. It is applied for under Family Code Chapter 82 ("APPLYING FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER"), heard under Chapter 84 ("HEARING"), and issued under Chapter 85 ("ISSUANCE OF PROTECTIVE ORDER"). It requires a finding that family violence has occurred, and family violence is defined by relationship in Chapter 71.
2. The temporary ex parte order. Family Code Chapter 83 is captioned "TEMPORARY EX PARTE ORDERS." It is issued without notice to the other person and without a hearing, on a finding of "a clear and present danger of family violence," and it lasts up to 20 days at a time. It is the short bridge to the Chapter 85 hearing, not a substitute for it.
3. The magistrate's order for emergency protection. Code of Criminal Procedure Article 17.292 is captioned "MAGISTRATE'S ORDER FOR EMERGENCY PROTECTION." A magistrate issues it in a criminal case, at the arrested person's first appearance, on the magistrate's own motion or at the request of the victim, the victim's guardian, a peace officer, or the prosecutor. It is not something a person files for at the courthouse as a civil case, and it runs on its own clock of 31 to 61 days, or 61 to 91 days where the arrest also involved serious bodily injury or the use or exhibition of a deadly weapon.
4. The Chapter 7B protective order. Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 7B, Subchapter A, is captioned "PROTECTIVE ORDER FOR VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT OR ABUSE, INDECENT ASSAULT, STALKING, OR TRAFFICKING." Article 7B.001(a) allows the victim of the listed offenses to apply "without regard to the relationship between the applicant and the alleged offender." There is no family or dating requirement, and the order may be made to last for the lives of both people.
The short version10 points · tap one to jump to it
- Does this cover me? — Coverage runs through the definition of "family violence" in Section 71.004, which reaches acts between members of a family or household and, separately, dating violence.
- Can I get something today? — This is the order a court can make without the other person present.
- The order after a hearing — Two years is the ordinary ceiling.
- What the judge can actually order — In most states this list reaches the home, the children and money, not just distance.
- Firearms — Texas splits this. The firearm prohibition in Section 85.022(b)(6) is discretionary in its wording, the court "may" impose it, while the suspension of a handgun license in Section 85.022(d) is mandatory, the court "shall" suspend it.
- What it costs — Texas states in its own statute that the person asking for a protective order pays nothing.
- If they break it
- Worth knowing about Texas — A temporary ex parte order counts for the criminal offense only once it has been served.
- How long a Texas order lasts — and what changed on 1 September 2025
- The part that is the same in every state — This is federal law and it does not change at a state line.
In this subject 10
Does this cover me?
The short version10 points · tap one to jump to it
- Does this cover me? — Coverage runs through the definition of "family violence" in Section 71.004, which reaches acts between members of a family or household and, separately, dating violence.
- Can I get something today? — This is the order a court can make without the other person present.
- The order after a hearing — Two years is the ordinary ceiling.
- What the judge can actually order — In most states this list reaches the home, the children and money, not just distance.
- Firearms — Texas splits this. The firearm prohibition in Section 85.022(b)(6) is discretionary in its wording, the court "may" impose it, while the suspension of a handgun license in Section 85.022(d) is mandatory, the court "shall" suspend it.
- What it costs — Texas states in its own statute that the person asking for a protective order pays nothing.
- If they break it
- Worth knowing about Texas — A temporary ex parte order counts for the criminal offense only once it has been served.
- How long a Texas order lasts — and what changed on 1 September 2025
- The part that is the same in every state — This is federal law and it does not change at a state line.
In this subject 10
Who can ask for one
Coverage runs through the definition of "family violence" in Section 71.004, which reaches acts between members of a family or household and, separately, dating violence. "Family" reaches people related by blood or marriage, former spouses, the two parents of the same child whether or not they ever married, and foster child and foster parent, whether or not they live together. "Household" reaches people living in the same dwelling whether or not they are related, and a person who previously lived there is still a member of that household. A dating relationship is a continuing relationship of a romantic or intimate nature, judged by its length, its nature, and how often and in what way the two people interacted; a casual acquaintance or ordinary socializing at work or in a social setting is not one. Two versions of Section 82.002(b) appear side by side in the published code, both enacted in 2011, one allowing an adult member of the dating relationship to file and one allowing a member of the dating relationship to file regardless of whether that member is an adult or a child. Where no relationship exists at all, the sexual assault, indecent assault, stalking, and trafficking order under Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 7B is the route Texas provides.
What you have to show
Can I get something today?
temporary ex parte order (Tex. Fam. Code ch. 83, captioned "TEMPORARY EX PARTE ORDERS") — before any hearing
This is the order a court can make without the other person present. It is short by design: it holds until a hearing, and the hearing is where the longer order is decided.
The request for a temporary ex parte order is made inside the same application. Section 82.009 requires that the application "contain a detailed description of the facts and circumstances concerning the alleged family violence and the need for the immediate protective order" and "be signed by each applicant under an oath that the facts and circumstances contained in the application are true to the best knowledge and belief of each applicant," and it adds that "a statement signed under oath by a child is valid if the statement otherwise complies with this chapter."
Ordering the other person out of the home at this stage is harder than the rest of the order. Section 83.006 permits it only if the applicant "files a sworn affidavit that provides a detailed description of the facts and circumstances requiring the exclusion of the person from the residence" and "appears in person to testify at a temporary ex parte hearing to justify the issuance of the order without notice," and only on findings that the applicant lives there or lived there within the 30 days before filing, that the person to be excluded committed family violence against a household member within those same 30 days, and that "there is a clear and present danger that the person to be excluded is likely to commit family violence against a member of the household." The court may recess that hearing to telephone the other person and offer them the chance to be present, but must finish the hearing before the end of the working day.
The hearing on the full order comes quickly. Under Section 84.001 the court sets a date and time when the application is filed and, unless the applicant asks for a later date, "may not set a date later than the 14th day after the date the application is filed." Section 84.002 allows a prosecuting attorney in a county with a population of more than 2.5 million, or in a judicial district made up of more than one county, to have the district court set the hearing not later than 20 days after filing.
The magistrate's order for emergency protection under Code of Criminal Procedure Article 17.292 is a different order with a different clock. It is issued in the criminal case after an arrest, is effective on issuance, and under Article 17.292(j) "remains in effect up to the 61st day but not less than 31 days after the date of issuance," or, where the arrest also involved serious bodily injury to the victim or the use or exhibition of a deadly weapon during the commission of an assault, "remains in effect up to the 91st day but not less than 61 days after the date of issuance."
The order after a hearing
How long it lasts, and whether it can be extended
Two years is the ordinary ceiling. A longer order is available only on one of the three findings in Section 85.025(a-1), and where the court goes past two years, Section 85.001(d) requires the order itself to contain that finding. Sections 85.025(a-2), (a-3), and (a-4) tie the end date to the end of a divorce, a parent-child case, or a criminal case rather than to the date of issuance. Section 85.025(c) extends an order automatically when the person it is against is in confinement, and Section 85.025(d) requires the Department of Public Safety to update the statewide law enforcement system with the new expiration date after release.
Texas does not provide for renewing a protective order that is running. Section 87.002 forbids using a modification to push the expiration date out. Where an order has already expired and was violated while it was in force, Section 85.002 allows a new order to be rendered without the court making a fresh finding under Section 85.001(a): "If the court finds that a respondent violated a protective order by committing an act prohibited by the order as provided by Section 85.022, that the order was in effect at the time of the violation, and that the order has expired after the date that the violation occurred, the court, without the necessity of making the finding described by Section 85.001(a), shall render a protective order as provided by Section 85.022 applying only to the respondent and may render a protective order as provided by Section 85.021."
The person the order is against may ask the court to end it early. Under Section 85.025(b) that motion cannot be filed before the first anniversary of the order, and under Section 85.025(b-2) the order stays in force unless the court affirmatively finds there is no continuing need for it, with the statute stating that "Evidence of the movant's compliance with the protective order does not by itself support a finding by the court that there is no continuing need for the protective order."
What the judge can actually order
Wider than most people expect. In most states this list reaches the home, the children and money, not just distance.
The statutory list
Firearms
What Texas’s own law says
Texas splits this. The firearm prohibition in Section 85.022(b)(6) is discretionary in its wording, the court "may" impose it, while the suspension of a handgun license in Section 85.022(d) is mandatory, the court "shall" suspend it. The warning that Section 85.026(a) requires on the face of every order, including a temporary ex parte order, states flatly that it is unlawful for a person subject to a protective order to possess a firearm or ammunition. Once an order is in force, Penal Code Section 25.07(a)(4) makes possessing a firearm in violation of it a criminal offense.
The sections read set out no surrender, turn-in, or storage procedure, and no deadline for giving up firearms already owned. They prohibit possession and suspend the handgun license.
Separately, Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 7C, added in 2025 and captioned "PROHIBITION ON RECOGNITION, SERVICE, AND ENFORCEMENT OF EXTREME RISK PROTECTIVE ORDERS," makes it a state jail felony to serve or enforce an "extreme risk protective order" in Texas unless it was issued under Texas law. Article 7C.006 states that "This chapter does not apply to a protective order issued under the Family Code or the Code of Criminal Procedure or to a protective order issued under the laws of another state that is recognized or enforceable under the Family Code or the Code of Criminal Procedure." A domestic violence protective order, including one from another state, is therefore outside that chapter.
What it costs
Fees
Texas states in its own statute that the person asking for a protective order pays nothing. Section 81.002 bars a clerk, sheriff, constable, or any other public official or employee from assessing the applicant or the applicant's attorney a fee, cost, charge, or expense for filing, serving, or entering the order, and it names the specific charges that are barred, including fees to dismiss, modify, withdraw, or transfer an order, certifying and comparing copies, court reporter fees, and judicial fund fees. The cost moves to the other side: Section 81.003 directs the court to require the party found to have committed family violence to pay a $16 protective order fee, the clerk's standard service fees, court costs, and all other fees, charges, or expenses connected with the order, except on a showing of good cause or of that party's indigence.
If they break it
What a violation is, and what it carries
Worth knowing about Texas
A temporary ex parte order counts for the criminal offense only once it has been served. Penal Code Section 25.07(a) reaches an order under "Chapter 83, Family Code, if the temporary ex parte order has been served on the person." No such service condition appears in that subsection for a Chapter 85 order.
Nobody can waive the order, and that is printed on its face. Section 85.026(a) requires every order, including a temporary ex parte order, to carry the statement: "NO PERSON, INCLUDING A PERSON WHO IS PROTECTED BY THIS ORDER, MAY GIVE PERMISSION TO ANYONE TO IGNORE OR VIOLATE ANY PROVISION OF THIS ORDER. DURING THE TIME IN WHICH THIS ORDER IS VALID, EVERY PROVISION OF THIS ORDER IS IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT UNLESS A COURT CHANGES THE ORDER." Penal Code Section 25.07(d) says the same thing to police: "Reconciliatory actions or agreements made by persons affected by an order do not affect the validity of the order or the duty of a peace officer to enforce this section." Section 25.07(e) bars an officer investigating a violation from arresting a person the order protects for violating that order.
Texas will not put both people in one order. Section 85.003(c) states: "A court may not render one protective order under Section 85.022 that applies to both parties." Where the court does restrain both people, Section 85.003 requires two distinct documents, and Section 85.001(c) requires that an order restraining the person who applied first must contain a finding that the first applicant committed family violence.
The protective order outranks a divorce or custody order while it is running. Section 85.026(b) requires every order to display: "DURING THE TIME IN WHICH THIS ORDER IS VALID AND SUBJECT TO TRANSFER, THE ORDER PREVAILS OVER ANY OTHER ORDER RENDERED IN A SUIT FOR DISSOLUTION OF A MARRIAGE OR A SUIT AFFECTING THE PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP TO THE EXTENT OF ANY CONFLICT BETWEEN THE ORDERS."
On lifetime orders, published summaries frequently blur two different statutes. The Family Code family violence order has no lifetime provision. Its longest form is Section 85.025(a-1), "a period that exceeds two years," available only on a finding of a felony family violence offense, serious bodily injury, or two or more previous protective orders. The lifetime language sits in the sexual assault, indecent assault, stalking, and trafficking order instead. Code of Criminal Procedure Article 7B.007(a) provides that such an order "may be effective for the duration of the lives of the offender and victim or for any shorter period stated in the order," and Article 7B.007(a-1) requires a lifetime order where the offender is convicted of or placed on deferred adjudication community supervision for a listed offense and is required to register for life as a sex offender. Article 7B.007(c) adds: "To the extent of any conflict with Section 85.025, Family Code, this article prevails."
A long Family Code order can still be reopened by the person it restrains. Section 85.025(b) lets that person move for review once a year has passed, and Section 85.025(b-1) allows one further motion where the order runs beyond two years. Section 85.025(b-2) keeps the order in force unless the court affirmatively finds no continuing need, and states that compliance alone does not establish that.
The order does not necessarily die on its printed expiration date. Section 85.025(c) automatically extends an order where the person restrained is confined, to one year after release for a sentence of more than five years and two years after release for a sentence of five years or less, and Section 85.026(d) requires the order to give notice of that possibility.
The fee waiver is broader than a filing fee waiver. Section 81.002 also covers service, certifying copies, court reporter fees, judicial fund fees, and fees to dismiss, modify, withdraw, or transfer the order.
An expired order can still generate a new one. Under Section 85.002, if the respondent violated the order while it was in effect and it has since expired, the court renders a new order without needing to make a fresh finding that family violence occurred.
Electronic tracking is now named in the statute. Section 85.022(b)(8) lets the court prohibit tracking or monitoring a protected person's property or vehicle, including by tracking application or tracking device or by physically following them, and Penal Code Section 25.07(a)(7) makes doing so a violation.
How long a Texas order lasts — and what changed on 1 September 2025
Texas rewrote this in 2025, and the change is one almost nobody has picked up. If you are divorcing, or there is a custody case, or there is a criminal charge running alongside, your protective order can now be tied to the end of that case rather than to a flat two years.
The default is still two years
“Except as otherwise provided by this section, an order under this subtitle is effective: (1) for the period stated in the order, not to exceed two years; or (2) if a period is not stated in the order, until the second anniversary of the date the order was issued.”
Note subsection (2). A Texas order with no expiry date printed on it is not indefinite — it runs two years by default.
Longer than two years, on a finding — § 85.025(a-1)
The court may make an order running beyond two years if it finds the respondent:
“(1) committed an act constituting a felony offense involving family violence against the applicant or a member of the applicant’s family or household, regardless of whether the person has been charged with or convicted of the offense; (2) caused serious bodily injury to the applicant or a member of the applicant’s family or household; or (3) was the subject of two or more previous protective orders” made to protect the same person after a finding of family violence.
The words in bold are the ones to hold on to. You do not need a prosecution, let alone a conviction. The judge in your protective order hearing can find that the conduct amounted to a felony family violence offense and lengthen the order on that basis alone. If the district attorney has declined to charge, that does not close this door.
Section 85.001(d) requires the court to write that finding into the order. If a judge grants you more than two years, check the order says why.
The 2025 change: orders that track your other case
Senate Bill 1120 (Acts 2025, 89th Leg., ch. 797), effective 1 September 2025, added three new subsections. Each ties the order to the end of a related case, plus two years:
“If an order … is rendered against a respondent who is a party to a suit for dissolution of a marriage in which the applicant … is the other party, the order is effective until the second anniversary of the date on which the final decree of dissolution of the marriage is approved and signed by the judge.”
“… a party to a suit affecting the parent-child relationship in which the applicant … is also a party, the order is effective until the second anniversary of the date on which the final order in the suit is rendered by the court.”
“… charged with a criminal offense involving family violence under Title 5, Penal Code, or an offense under Section 25.11, Penal Code, the order is effective until the second anniversary of the date of the final disposition of the criminal case.”
Why this matters so much in practice: divorces and custody cases routinely outrun two years. Under the old rule your protection could expire while the case that caused it was still being fought. Now it does not — it survives the decree by two full years, automatically, by operation of the statute.
The catch, and it is a real one. The Act says: “The changes in law made by this Act to Chapter 85, Family Code, apply only to a protective order rendered on or after the effective date of this Act. A protective order rendered before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the order is rendered.” So if your order was made before 1 September 2025, none of this applies to it. It runs on the old rules. If your divorce is still live and your order predates that date, that is worth raising with a lawyer now rather than in the ninetieth month.
If they go to prison, the clock stops — § 85.025(c)
An order that would expire while the respondent is confined, or within a year of their release, is extended automatically. It then expires on “the first anniversary of the date the person is released” if they were sentenced to more than five years, or “the second anniversary” if five years or less. You do not have to apply for this; it happens by statute, and the Department of Public Safety is required to update the statewide law enforcement system to reflect the new date.
Lifetime orders exist — but not in the Family Code
People search for a Texas “lifetime protective order” and cannot find it in chapter 85, because it is not there. It is in the Code of Criminal Procedure, art. 7B.007:
“A protective order issued under Article 7B.003 may be effective for the duration of the lives of the offender and victim or for any shorter period stated in the order.”
And it is mandatory in one case: the court “shall issue” a lifetime order where the offender is convicted of or placed on deferred adjudication for a listed offense and is required to register for life as a sex offender. Article 7B.007(c) settles any conflict: “To the extent of any conflict with Section 85.025, Family Code, this article prevails.” These are orders arising out of the criminal process — ask the prosecutor or the victim assistance coordinator, not the family court clerk.
They can ask the court to end it early — and what stops that
Under § 85.025(b) the restrained person may move, no earlier than the first anniversary of the order, for the court to review whether there is a continuing need for it. For the longer orders there is a second bite, but only one, and not within a year of the last ruling (§ 85.025(b-1)).
The sentence to know is in (b-2):
“Evidence of the movant’s compliance with the protective order does not by itself support a finding by the court that there is no continuing need for the protective order.”
That forecloses the argument you will otherwise hear: he has followed it for a year, so he clearly does not need to be restrained any more. Texas has legislated that obeying the order is not, on its own, a reason to lift it. Note also the burden as the subsection frames it — the order stays unless the court affirmatively finds there is no continuing need.
Texas firearms: the provision we could not read before
An earlier version of this page disclosed that Penal Code § 46.04 was unreachable on any official page we could open. We have now read it, and the detail matters more than usual.
Section 46.04(c) makes it an offense for a person “who is subject to an order issued under Section 6.504 or Chapter 85, Family Code, under Article 17.292 or Subchapter A, Chapter 7B, Code of Criminal Procedure… [to] possess a firearm after receiving notice of the order and before expiration of the order.” It is a Class A misdemeanor, and it is automatic — no judge has to make a firearms finding or add a term.
Now read the list of orders again, because Chapter 83 is not on it. A Family Code Chapter 83 temporary ex parte protective order does not trigger § 46.04(c), and Chapter 83 contains no firearms provision of its own. What does trigger it at the emergency stage is an Article 17.292 magistrate’s order for emergency protection — which comes out of the criminal process, after an arrest, not out of your civil application.
So in the window between your ex parte order and your final Chapter 85 order, the Texas possession offense does not apply, and neither does the federal one. If there has also been an arrest, ask the prosecutor or the victim assistance coordinator about an emergency protection order under art. 17.292 — that one does bite immediately.
The license rules run wider than the possession offense. Under Tex. Gov’t Code § 411.187 a license to carry must be suspended where the holder commits an act of family violence and is subject to an active protective order under Title 4 of the Family Code — and Title 4 includes Chapter 83. So a temporary ex parte order suspends the license even though it does not make possession an offense.
Texas has no surrender procedure — no deadline, no recipient, no receipt or affidavit. The prohibition operates purely as a possession offense after the fact.
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 “[a]n individual found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another 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.
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 Texas Legislature’s statute site served us inconsistently. Its GetStatute.aspx and DocViewer.aspx addresses were refused at the robots stage throughout, and the HTML address for Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 7B kept returning the site’s home page. We read Family Code Chapter 85 at the site’s plain-document address, Chapter 7B from the same site’s PDF, and Penal Code s. 46.04 from a reproduction we cross-checked. Nothing on this page now rests on a source we could not open.
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 Texas presumes about custody, and the emergency jurisdiction that exists when someone has to leave the state.