Oklahoma City, OK asked in Criminal Law and Domestic Violence for Oklahoma

Q: I was never served a e.p.o. paper never arrested or questioned why do I have felony warrant now issued? From state

1 Lawyer Answer

A: Emergency protective orders are not criminal charges, they are sort of “quasi criminal.” They are intended to keep certain parties apart from each other because of the alleged wrongdoing of one of them. As long as rules are followed once a decision is made on whether there is any merit to an emergency protective order, there is no problem of loss of liberty or incarceration or criminal conviction.

However, many emergency protective orders involve an allegation of criminal wrongdoing, which often times is undergoing a criminal investigation at the same time behind the protective order is making its way through the court.

We would need more information to give you a more confident answer, but you might check to make sure the warrant isn’t based on the filing of a criminal charge, felony or misdemeanor, based upon the same factual pattern alleged in the protective order itself.

You need to contact a criminal defense attorney to see if they can do a bit of investigating to figure out the source of the warrant.

Best of luck

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