{"id":25905,"date":"2026-10-15T03:33:58","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T07:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/maine-pfa\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T03:33:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T07:33:58","slug":"maine-pfa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/maine-pfa\/","title":{"rendered":"Maine PFA Orders: What They Are and How to Fight One"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What Is a PFA Order in Maine?<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/All-4-Lawyers-Option-2-678x1024.jpg\" alt=\"All four Webb Law Firm lawyers - Nicole Williamson, Vincent LoConte, John Webb, and Katie Campbell - posing outdoors against greenery.\" align=\"left\" width=\"250\" style=\"float:left;margin:0 20px 10px 0;height:auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>A Maine PFA &#8211; or Protection from Abuse order &#8211; is a civil order issued by a Maine District Court under <a href=\"https:\/\/legislature.maine.gov\/statutes\/19-A\/title19-Asec4102.html\">Maine&#39;s protection from abuse statutes<\/a>. It is not a criminal charge. A PFA is a court directive. It protects a person from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/domestic-violence.html\">domestic violence<\/a> by a family member, household member, dating partner, or someone outside that circle in certain cases.<\/p>\n<p>Maine PFA orders occur in two stages. First, the plaintiff may request a temporary (ex parte) order. A judge hears and decides that request as expeditiously as practicable after the complaint is filed, without the defendant present, on good cause shown &#8211; and immediate and present danger of abuse is good cause. Second, the court schedules a final hearing where both sides present evidence. If the judge finds abuse occurred by a preponderance of the evidence, the court may issue a final PFA order. It can last up to two years.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/maine-pfa\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Maine PFA Orders: What They Are and How to Fight One\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Is a PFA Order in Maine? A Maine PFA &#8211; or Protection from Abuse order &#8211; is a civil order issued by a Maine District Court under Maine&#39;s protection from abuse statutes. It is not a criminal charge. A PFA is a court directive. It protects a person from domestic violence by a family [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-domestic-violence"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Maine PFA Orders: Defense Guide | Webb Law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Maine PFA orders explained: meaning, hearing process, consequences and defense. Talk with a Maine defense lawyer in a free consultation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/maine-pfa\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Maine PFA Orders: Defense Guide | Webb Law\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Maine PFA orders explained: meaning, hearing process, consequences and defense. 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Talk with a Maine defense lawyer in a free consultation.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/All-4-Lawyers-Option-2-rotated.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Webb Law Firm","Est. reading time":"12 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/maine-pfa\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/maine-pfa\/"},"author":{"name":"Webb Law Firm","@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2a779c0cfb58df839ae19364412f5dc6"},"headline":"Maine PFA Orders: What They Are and How to Fight One","datePublished":"2026-10-15T07:33:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/maine-pfa\/"},"wordCount":2387,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/maine-pfa\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/All-4-Lawyers-Option-2-678x1024.jpg","articleSection":["Domestic Violence"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/maine-pfa\/","url":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/maine-pfa\/","name":"Maine PFA Orders: Defense Guide | Webb Law","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/maine-pfa\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/maine-pfa\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/All-4-Lawyers-Option-2-678x1024.jpg","datePublished":"2026-10-15T07:33:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2a779c0cfb58df839ae19364412f5dc6"},"description":"Maine PFA orders explained: meaning, hearing process, consequences and defense. 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