Q: If the victim of a no contact order tries to contact defendant, is it a violation?

A: That’s a very good question! It’s also a very common question which I get asked all the time.

When law-enforcement gets called on the reporting of a crime and someone is arrested and goes before a judge, usually on video while they are in jail, the judge will almost universally issue a “no contact order” or “NCO” prohibition to the defendant in any domestic or non-domestic assault battery type allegation. Many times it’s a husband and a wife, or other family member, that is the defendant as well as the victim.

It’s difficult to put the brakes on if it is a family member, particularly if you lived in the same household at the time of the alleged crime, and this situation arises. The reality is the no contact order is usually directed at the “defendant,” and it is usually not considered as a prohibition to a victim who has done nothing wrong.

In most domestic violence situations, many people believe the spirit of a Court’s (Judges) no contact order does NOT necessarily flow both ways. Meaning it would be a bit of a tortured definition to assume the Judge's prohibition in a no contact order somehow also extends to the VICTIM, preventing them from attempting to reach out to the defendant (in most situations the victim is never instructed that they have a no contact order against the defendant, only the other way around). And if it did, , to think that the VICTIM could get in trouble from the Court if they reach out to the Defendant just does not seem right.

But another logical question would be if the victim attempts to reach out to the defendant, and the defendant has good reason to know that it is the victim trying to contact them, would it be violation of the new contact order. I think in that situation, such as in a phone call where the caller ID clearly shows it’s the victim reaching out to them, the defendant could potentially get in trouble in such a situation.

It’s generally best to have the defendant completely avoid ALL contact when they know it’s the victim, reaching out to them, and perhaps simply report such attempted contact from the victim to your attorney who could potentially take steps to figure out what’s going on. An attorney could attempt to determine the purpose of the attempted contact from the victim, Just to prove to the court that every effort was made by the defendant to follow the no contact order instruction.

Best of luck!

A: In the short answer -- No that is not a violation. In Oklahoma, only a defendant against whom a protective order has been issued may be held to have violated the order. 22 OS 60.6(H) --- Therefore if the Victim makes contact or attempts to make contact, this is not a violation of the order.

I agree with Mr. Tiernan in that realistically it is best to make sure all contact is avoided. The Defendant should do their best to prevent the victim contacting them, and if they are contacted, they need to document and log everything with as much detail as possible.