Washington Protection Orders
Six lanes, one chapter — and protection does not wait for a divorce.
If there is danger right now: 911. Washington's 2021 consolidation put six civil protection orders in one chapter with one front door — this page routes the lane, teaches the ex parte reality, and names the firearm-surrender rule. The official PO-series pattern forms are the petition path.
Route the lane
What is happening?
Your relationship to the other person
The lanes
Domestic violence protection order
Domestic violence by an intimate partner or a family or household member — physical harm, assault, sexual assault, stalking, or coercive control within the qualifying relationships.
Sexual assault protection order
Nonconsensual sexual conduct or penetration, or commercial sexual exploitation — no qualifying relationship required.
Stalking protection order
Stalking conduct outside the intimate-partner/household relationships that would route to a DV order.
Vulnerable adult protection order
Abandonment, abuse, financial exploitation, or neglect of a vulnerable adult — petitionable by the adult or an interested person on their behalf.
Extreme risk protection order
The respondent poses a significant danger with a firearm — petitionable ONLY by an intimate partner, family or household member, or law enforcement.
Antiharassment protection order
Unlawful harassment outside the other lanes — the general-purpose civil order.
Same-day, ex parte — RCW 7.105.305
Ex parte TEMPORARY orders (other than extreme risk) are available without notice where irreparable harm is shown — same-day relief, followed by the full hearing; extreme-risk orders run their own track.
Firearms — RCW 9.41.800
Runtime-verifiedOrders under the surrender statute require IMMEDIATE surrender of all firearms and dangerous weapons and any concealed pistol license, and prohibit access, custody, control, possession, or purchase (RCW 9.41.800) — with the extreme-risk lane's own surrender machinery (RCW 7.105.340). Law enforcement executes; compliance review follows.
No automatic restraining orders here: Washington has NO statewide automatic restraining orders on filing a dissolution (California's § 2040 model) — temporary restraining orders inside a family case ride ON MOTION under RCW 26.09.060, and some counties issue their own standing family-law orders, which are county-local law this platform reports only as BenchPath verifies them.
Authority locked — retrieved from the hash-pinned corpus
The PO-series official pattern forms are the petition path (stored label-only; the official forms control). Criminal no-contact orders are DIFFERENT instruments with their own rules.