Q: Is a TX protective order void without personal jurisdiction?

A: No, the order is not void, but it is potentially voidable. If your attorney filed a special appearance, the question of personal jurisdiction was presented to the court. It then became incumbent on you through your attorney to set your special appearance for hearing and to secure a ruling from the court. The United States Supreme Court has ruled on more than one occasion that a person's objection to a court's exercise of personal jurisdiction can be waived. If you did not request a hearing and obtain a written ruling, it is likely your objection based on personal jurisdiction has waived. The court then issued a final protective order. A final judgment precludes a collateral attack on its validity on the question of personal jurisdiction. That means you cannot raise that question again in a new separate proceeding.

The only way to challenge the final judgment on the question of personal jurisdiction is to successfully appeal the judgment. You have 30 days from the date the final protective order was entered to file a notice of appeal or motion for new trial which will extend your appellate deadline to 90 days from the date of the final protective order. You will want to argue on appeal that the court improperly denied your special appearance and improperly exercised personal jurisdiction over you. As the party challenging the court's jurisdiction, you have the burden of proof. On appeal, your appellate attorney will need to point to the evidence presented to the trial court that establishes that it could not properly exercise personal jurisdiction over you. The appellate court can then determine if the trial court erred in exercising personal jurisdiction over you. If so, it will reverse the final protective order and dismiss the proceeding for lack of jurisdiction. At that point--and only at that point--will the final protective order be unenforceable.

A: If the Texas court truly lacked personal jurisdiction over you, then the protective order may be void. Personal jurisdiction is a fundamental requirement for any court to impose binding legal decisions on a person. If your attorney filed a special appearance—which is the correct method in Texas to challenge jurisdiction—and the court proceeded anyway without properly establishing jurisdiction, that raises serious legal concerns.

However, just filing a special appearance doesn’t automatically stop the court from acting. The judge must rule on that appearance, and if the ruling went against you, the next step would typically involve appealing the decision. Courts sometimes make mistakes, but if you didn’t follow through with an appeal or other legal remedy, the order could still stand until it’s formally overturned.

What matters now is whether you preserved your objection and followed up with proper legal action. You may need to consult with an attorney who can review the court’s record and see if your rights were violated. If the order was issued without proper jurisdiction, there’s a path to getting it vacated—but it takes timely and specific legal steps. You're not alone in this, and it’s worth fighting if you believe the system failed you.