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In reply to the discussion: California gun laws: Jerry Brown signs major new restrictions on firearms owners, rejects others [View all]happyslug
(14,779 posts)No filing fee is needed and most courts have ways to do this without an attorney. You do NOT need to contact the police nor do the police need to be involved.
A PFA is a CIVIL action NOT a criminal action. Thus all that has to be shown is the victim is a member of the group of people protected under the PFA law, AND that some sort of abuse occurred. You do NOT need to prove beyound a reasonable doubt that the abuse occurred, all you need to prove it is more likely then not the abuse occurred. Thus if you have two people, one saying the other abused the first person, the defendant saying no such abuse occurred, no other evidence is needed for a judge to enter a PFA order.
Sorry, the old Peace Writs were bad, and the courts will NOT permit the PFAs to be expanded to do what the old Peace Writs did, thus Brown's veto. It sounds like Brown does NOT want to spend the money defending the constitutionality of such an expansion, money California does not have to spend on a losing argument.