There is no public website where you can look up every protective order against you. Orders from every California county feed one statewide Department of Justice system, but the law makes that system available to court clerks and law enforcement and provides no public or self-service search. The reliable way to find out what is currently on file is to check with each court involved, yourself or through a lawyer.

Why an order from a different county still counts against you

Within one business day after a criminal protective order or domestic violence restraining order is issued, modified, extended, or terminated, the court must send it to a law enforcement agency for entry into the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS), or, with Department of Justice approval, enter it there directly (Family Code section 6380(a)). For a wider list of orders, the Department of Justice must be notified immediately of the order’s contents (6380(b)). That list covers domestic violence orders, civil harassment, workplace violence, and school violence orders, criminal protective orders issued under Penal Code section 136.2, retail crime restraining orders, certain juvenile court orders, elder abuse orders, and out-of-state orders registered here. The Department of Justice keeps all of it in the California Restraining and Protective Order System, including orders that have not yet been served (6380(e)).

That is why police and courts anywhere in the state can see an order issued in another county. An order issued against you in one county does not stay local. If you have been involved in more than one case, in different counties or even different states, more than one order can be active against you at the same time.

Orders from other states

A valid protection order from another state is enforceable in California without being registered here (Family Code section 6403(d)). The person holding it can ask a California court to register it so it is entered into the statewide system, and the law directs that registered out-of-state orders be sealed, with access limited to law enforcement, the person who registered the order, the defense after arraignment on a charge of violating it, or by court order (Family Code section 6404). An out-of-state order that was never registered may not appear in the California system at all, so check with the court in the other state that issued it.

Why you cannot just look it up yourself

The statute behind the statewide system directs the Department of Justice to make it available, through computer access, to court clerks and law enforcement personnel (6380(e)). The statute provides no public or self-service search, and there is no official portal where you can type in your own name and see every order currently against you. Treat any site or service that claims to offer a public lookup of this system with caution.

Do not try to get around that by asking a contact with court or police system access to run an informal search for you. That access exists for official purposes, and using it as a personal favor can create legal problems of its own, for both of you.

What actually works

  • Ask a lawyer to check the court files in each county involved, including any pending criminal case, where a criminal protective order will be part of the case file.
  • Contact the clerk of the superior court in every county connected to you, meaning anywhere you have lived, worked, or been named in a case. Each county’s court keeps its own case files, so a check in one county does not cover another.
  • If you only recently learned there might be an order, for example because a background check flagged something, do not assume that is the only one. Ask each court specifically whether anything else is on file under your name.
  • If you think an older order may have expired or been dismissed, confirm that with the issuing court instead of assuming. A domestic violence restraining order issued after a hearing can last up to five years and can be renewed for five or more years, or permanently, without a new showing of abuse, and an order whose form states no expiration date lasts three years (Family Code section 6345). A renewal can keep a permanent restraining order in force well past its original end date.

What this does not resolve

Finding out that an order exists is a different question from defending against it or a specific alleged violation, or from arguing that you were never properly notified of it. Those questions have their own rules.

If a background check, a custody matter, or a travel plan depends on knowing every order that names you, the Law Offices of David S. Chesley can help track down the specific case files with the courts involved. Call (800) 755-5174.