How Long Does a Restraining Order Stay on Your Record, or on Theirs?

An order's enforceable life and its record life run on separate clocks. A California temporary order lasts only until the hearing, which Family Code section 242 requires within 21 days, or 25 for good cause. A final order runs up to five years under Family Code section 6345 and can be renewed for five more or permanently. The file outlives both: Government Code section 68152(c)(6) directs California clerks to keep the restraining order permanently as a judgment once its term and renewals end, destroying only the temporary order's own paperwork, 60 days after it lapses. Under 15 U.S.C. section 1681c(a)(2), a screening company may report that civil case for seven years from the date of entry, with no cap at all when the job pays $75,000 or more.

Two people ask this, and they need opposite answers

The phrasing gives away who is asking. "My record" is the restrained party, hoping for an end date. The protected party asks the identical question with one word changed and wants the reverse: that the order stays findable long enough for a responding officer to verify it on the spot, and long enough to support a renewal petition years later. Same retention rules. Opposite consequences.

I directed airport pickup curbs for twelve years, which sounds unrelated until you notice what that job is. All day, someone shows me a screen and asks why it disagrees with the world. The pin says the driver is ninety feet away; the geofence says he cannot legally stop at that door. My work was deciding which of two systems was authoritative and how far behind the other was running. Restraining-order records fail in that same shape. The screen someone hands you is almost never the system of record.

How long the order itself is enforceable

| | Temporary order | Final order after hearing | Renewal or extension | Authority | |---|---|---|---|---| | California (domestic violence) | Until the hearing, set within 21 days, or 25 for good cause | Up to 5 years | Five or more years, or permanent, requested in the 3 months before expiration | Fam. Code §§ 242, 6345 | | New York (Family Court) | Until the return date the court sets | Up to 2 years | Up to 5 years on a record finding of aggravating circumstances, or that the conduct violated a valid order | Fam. Ct. Act § 842 | | Texas (family violence) | TRO 14 days; magistrate's emergency order 31–91 days | Up to 2 years | Beyond 2 years on findings such as serious bodily injury or two prior protective orders | Fam. Code § 85.025 |

California civil harassment orders run on a different clock, 22 days to hearing under Code of Civil Procedure section 527.6(g) rather than 21. Renewal is not clerical. In Ritchie v. Konrad (2004) 115 Cal.App.4th 1275, the Court of Appeal reversed a permanent renewal granted on the theory that asking was enough, holding the protected party must show reasonable apprehension of future abuse.

I have never sat through a renewal hearing and I would not guess how a judge in your county weighs that standard. What I can vouch for is what the paperwork does after the ruling, because that part is mechanical and written down.

What to check on your own copy, in order

1. The form number. In California, DV-110 is the temporary order and DV-130 is the order after hearing. Different form, different clock.
2. The caption and case number, which identify the issuing court. That court, and only that court, can modify or dissolve what it issued.
3. The expiration date printed on the face of the order. Not the date you were served, and not five years from whenever you remember the hearing.
4. The docket. Pull the civil index at the issuing court and read the last entry. A renewal filed inside the three-month window changes the answer.
5. The registry. Ask the law enforcement agency that entered the order to confirm its current status and terms.

Which record actually tells you whether it is active

Four layers hold this information and they do not update together. The issuing court's docket is the source. California's statewide registry, CARPOS, formerly the Domestic Violence Restraining Orders System, is next; the Judicial Council's instructions on DV-110 and DV-130 direct the serving officer to submit proof of service into CARPOS within one business day. Third is the FBI's NCIC Protection Order File. Last, and furthest downstream, sits whatever a commercial screener sold your employer.

I used to tell people that an order clears itself from the national file the day it expires. That is roughly what the system does, since NCIC flips the record inactive on the expiration date. I stopped about three years ago after reading the Justice Department's guidance for entering agencies. A query of the Protection Order File returns records that are active, expired, or cleared. A record an agency fails to validate gets purged, then comes back labeled "Cleared Protection Order" for the remainder of that year plus five more. Inactive is a status, not a deletion, and I had been telling people otherwise.

I learned that lesson expensively. Early on I opened a pickup lane off a cached map layer superseded that same morning and told a dozen drivers the curb was clear. It was not. Every one of them was cited, and I spent weeks afterward pulling each citation and writing up how I had gotten it wrong. I have not trusted a downstream copy since. A background-check report is a downstream copy.

The order and the crime of violating it are separate records

Readers conflate these constantly, and the two records behave nothing alike.

A restraining order is a civil order. Having one entered against you is not a conviction and not an arrest, and by itself it generates no criminal history entry. Violating it is a crime: California Penal Code section 273.6 makes violation a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in county jail and a fine up to $1,000. A second violation within seven years involving violence or a threat of violence can be filed as a felony carrying 16 months, two, or three years in state prison.

The reporting clocks then diverge hard. The civil order falls under the seven-year window in 15 U.S.C. section 1681c(a)(2). A conviction has no federal reporting limit whatsoever, because section 1681c(a)(5) carves "records of convictions of crimes" out of the catch-all rule entirely. Firearms diverge too. The federal disability under 18 U.S.C. section 922(g)(8) lasts only while you are subject to the qualifying order, while a misdemeanor conviction under section 273.6 triggers a ten-year California ban under Penal Code section 29805, running from the date of conviction.

What expiration actually removes

It removes the legal restraint, and it removes the gun prohibition. Section 922(g)(8) reaches a person only for so long as he "is" subject to the order. When the Supreme Court upheld that statute 8–1 in United States v. Rahimi on June 21, 2024, the Chief Justice's opinion leaned on precisely that feature, describing the prohibition as one of "limited duration." On the state side, California Family Code section 6389 requires surrender within 24 hours of service and the filing of a receipt, form DV-800, with the court within 48 hours; the agency returns the firearm within five days after the relinquishment order expires, unless a successive order has issued.

What expiration does not touch is findability. The order is retained permanently as a judgment. The NCIC query still returns it. The screener still sees a civil case in the county index.

Sealing, dismissal, and what the issuing court can do

There is no waiting period to seal a civil restraining order, because there is no line to wait in. California Rules of Court rule 2.550(c) presumes court records are open, and rule 2.551 requires a noticed motion on which the judge must make all five express findings that NBC Subsidiary (KNBC-TV), Inc. v. Superior Court (1999) 20 Cal.4th 1178 demands: an overriding interest, that the interest supports sealing, a substantial probability of prejudice without it, narrow tailoring, and no less restrictive means. Rule 2.551 also forbids sealing on the parties' stipulation alone. Regret is not an overriding interest.

Contrast the criminal track, where waiting periods are real. Under SB 731, signed September 29, 2022, the California Department of Justice reviews its databases monthly under Penal Code sections 851.93 and 1203.425 and grants relief with no petition filed; a felony arrest that never produced charges generally becomes eligible three years later. Nothing equivalent exists for a civil protective order file.

Here is the strongest argument against everything I have written, and it is a good one: none of it reaches the person deciding. A hiring manager reads a one-page report and will never open a docket. Insisting the docket is the real record is beside the point when the report closes the door. I grant that. The docket still matters because the dispute right in 15 U.S.C. section 1681i runs against the report, and disputes are won by producing the source document that contradicts it: a certified minute order showing dismissal, or an order after hearing showing the term ended. The court file is not your audience. It is your ammunition.

If the request against you was denied or dismissed, the case still exists in the index under both names. Ask the clerk what the minute order actually says, then buy certified copies of it.

Preserving documents and watching the deadlines

Get certified copies while the clerk's file is intact rather than years later; California courts issue up to three certified, stamped copies at no charge. Calendar the expiration date printed on the order, then set a second reminder three months earlier, because that is the window Family Code section 6345 gives for a renewal request and the window a protected party will use. In Texas, a person subject to an order running longer than two years may file one motion asking the court to review whether a continuing need exists, and under section 85.025(b-1) that motion cannot come earlier than the first anniversary of the ruling on the previous one.

Re-pull the docket once a year. Registries lag, agencies validate on their own schedules, and the entry someone runs on you tomorrow was written by whoever touched the file last.

FAQ

Does a restraining order come back on a background check?

Often, yes. A restraining order is a civil court filing, and the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act permits screeners to report civil suits and judgments for seven years from the date of entry. That seven-year cap disappears entirely for positions paying $75,000 or more, under 15 U.S.C. section 1681c(b)(3).

How can you tell if a restraining order is still active?

Check three places and trust them in this order: the expiration date on the face of the order, the issuing court's docket for any renewal or dismissal entry, and the law enforcement agency that entered it into the registry. An NCIC query returns expired and cleared orders too, so the status label matters more than the hit.

What jobs can I not get with a restraining order?

No federal statute bars employment because of a civil restraining order. The real barriers are practical. While a qualifying order is active, 18 U.S.C. section 922(g)(8) blocks any role requiring a firearm, including law enforcement and armed security. Licensed positions in childcare, eldercare, healthcare, and education apply their own fitness reviews.

What is the longest a restraining order can last?

Permanently, in states that allow it. California Family Code section 6345 lets a court renew a domestic violence order for five or more years, or permanently, at its discretion. Texas Family Code section 85.025 permits terms beyond two years on findings such as serious bodily injury or two prior protective orders.

Does a restraining order stay on a record after it expires?

Yes. California Government Code section 68152(c)(6) directs clerks to retain the order permanently as a judgment once its term and renewals end, though the temporary order's own file can be destroyed 60 days after it lapses. The FBI's Protection Order File still returns expired and cleared records on a query.

What is the difference between an order and a conviction for violating it?

The order is civil and creates no criminal history by itself. Violating it is a crime. California Penal Code section 273.6 makes violation a misdemeanor carrying up to one year in county jail and a $1,000 fine, and that conviction has no federal reporting time limit, unlike the seven-year civil clock.