What is a stay-away order?

A stay-away provision restricts physical presence at identified locations: a residence, a workplace, a school, or sometimes a distance radius around a person.

It frequently accompanies a no-contact order, and the two together cover both communication and proximity.

The practical problems are logistical. Someone ordered to stay away from a shared residence needs clothing, work equipment, medication, and documents from inside it. The answer is a civil standby — arranging with law enforcement to accompany you for a supervised retrieval — rather than going yourself, and the terms of that should be cleared with counsel first.

The same applies to shared vehicles, shared children, and shared workplaces. Each has a procedure, and each becomes a violation if handled informally.

Being in a location before learning the order existed is a different situation from returning after, and documenting timing matters.