An order of protection is a tactical nuclear weapon held by women in divorce that is predominately used as de facto sole custody orders.
DadsDivorce.com founder Joseph Cordell writes about the abuse of a system designed to protect against abuse in his Huffington Post article “Order of Protection: And Justice For All?”
Cordell writes: “Time and time again, I have seen orders of protection treat the man like a criminal when there is no basis for the endangerment claims. These men are law-abiding citizens and great fathers who see their rights challenged or completely vanish in court.”
Read the full Huffington Post article on misuse of orders of protection.
While these orders were created for a “good and righteous” purpose, it continues to confound me how these orders continue to be abused when the courts know that the majority of these orders are used as tactical weapons prior to divorce, yet they continue to look the other way while the father is emotionally traumatized and has his life ripped away from him by fabricated or false claims. In Arizona, we have a tort law entitled “Abuse of Process,” yet it has been conveyed to me that successfully prosecuting someone for abuse of process is nearly impossible. At the very least, why can’t the orders be amended to require some manner of proof, or that they are not being used for leverage in future custody hearings? The devastating effects it has on men cannot be quantified.