Interesting Find…….

DEFINITION OF ‘NO CONTACT’ ORDER

Under Florida law, a ‘no contact’ order is a type of injunction or restraining order imposed by a court as a condition of a defendant’s pretrial release. It prohibits a defendant from having direct or indirect contact with the alleged victim for the duration of the criminal case, or until the court lifts or modifies the order.

Unless otherwise specified by the court, a no contact order in Florida means that a defendant is to have no interaction- direct or indirect- with the alleged victim.  The defendant can not call, text, e-mail, write, fax, leave messages for, instant message, send packages to, gesture towards, touch, or even intentionally be in the alleged victim’s vicinity. Communications through Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, and other social media sites are all forms of “contact” that will violate a no contact order.

Indirect contact is also prohibited under a Florida no contact order.  Thus, a defendant can not cause a communication to be made through an intermediary, or third party. The most common example of this is where the defendant uses a friend or family member to send a message to the alleged victim on the defendant’s behalf.

Consent of the other party does NOT have the effect of lifting a no contact order.  Only the court can modify the order.  It is also NOT a defense that the alleged victim contacted the defendant first.