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Legal Information: Pennsylvania

Restraining Orders

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Laws current as of
December 15, 2023

What is the legal definition of domestic abuse in Pennsylvania?

This section defines domestic abuse for the purposes of getting a protection from abuse order. “Abuse” is the occurrence of one or more of the following acts between family or household members:

  1. attempting to cause or causing any of the following, with or without a deadly weapon:
  1. placing another in reasonable fear of immediate serious bodily injury;
  2. false imprisonment;
  3. physical or sexual abuse of a child; or
  4. engaging in a course of conduct or repeatedly committing acts toward another person, including following the person, under circumstances which place the person in reasonable fear of bodily injury.1

1 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 6102(a)

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