Q: My sister-in-law has had a friend living in the mobile home she owns and lives in and is now concerned about her safety.

A: "Paperwork" is not required to establish a landlord-tenant relationship and verbal rental agreements are fully enforceable, albeit difficult to prove the exact agreed upon terms sometimes. Yes, you are wise to review everything with an attorney since all three potential areas of law here (restraining orders, landlord-tenant, and/or ejectment if there is no landlord-tenant relationship) are highly technical and generally require exact compliance by a landlord if they wish to prevail - and if they do not prevail, not only does the person get to stay but the landlord owes their court costs and attorney's fees as well (which can be thousands of dollars). First things first, however. To the extent she believes there is a serious and immediate threat to her safety, she should call the police. As for setting a strategy of what to file first or at the same time, that can depend upon her best guess as to how he will react and/or if he is likely to fight either or both and, if so, how hard? Can he afford to hire an attorney to oppose her? Even if she gets a restraining order, is he likely to obey it or is he the type who will come after her to get even no matter what until he is jailed? Depending upon just how imminent she feels the threat to be, she may (or may not!) want to review everything with a local attorney first before filing anything in order to sort out the best procedure but if she does not feel like she has even a few days, then she should be calling the police; staying elsewhere for a week or two while it gets sorted out; and/or immediately filing the application for a restraining order. If granted, it will go into force as soon as the Sheriff can serve the fellow and presumably would act to remove him from her presence, at least for awhile. Most Consumer Law attorneys and many just landlord-tenant attorneys handle both restraining orders and evictions or ejectments; and some family law attorneys (divorce, custody, support, etc.) may even handle these areas of law as well. So have her make an appointment to meet with one and both learn her options and rights, as well as to chart out a course of action going forth. Some of us even have evening hour appointments if that is convenient for her. Best of luck.