Here in NS if you’re threatened by someone it is quite a process (and a costly one) to apply to get a peace bond, and no assurances on getting one either. While I have no statistics at hand it would stand to reason that more often than not it is a women who need protection for herself and perhaps her children. With the date to accept/deny the application; a likely tit-for-tat counter peace bond application (which more often than not is fiction); another date to accept/deny the counter application and then a hearing date the legal cost is bound to approximate $3,000. Women often earn less than men; and in some cases have little income as the sole care-giver of the children. In my opinion the process is an unnecessarily complicated and costly process that discourages its use. But then perhaps that is the point. I would think that protecting women in our culture should be more important. Women shouldn’t have to stand in a public courtroom in a small community with a visible coconut telegraph present, either. I cannot understand the big deal for a simple request that a person who has threatened you does not come near you.
By contrast, south of the border, if a person has been assaulted or threatened that involved the police, they go to the court house and request a restraining order. It is a simple process, with a standardized distance that the person cannot come near the applicant. It is immediate once the person is served; and the legal protection is in place. IMO this would be a good change for the legal system in NS. —Bluenoser
This article appears in Aug 16-22, 2012.
i hate to say this, but neither one is worth the paper they are written on. if the perp wants to stray into the area that they are not sposed to, there is very little cops can do.you have to be able to provide 100% proof, they did it. and even then, it can be contested by them. if you even say boo to them, 5 feet outside area, you have been deemed to break the writ.
i have been there on this a few times, not for me tho. a woman i know had the papers put on this creep,but he drove cab, and used that as an excuse. he got away with it. another woman had papers out, and the guy was walking 50 or so feet behind her in a mall. she told him to keep away from her, and therby broke the no contact order that was out.
it’s a shitty deal, but there are always a loophole somewhere in them.
You don’t need a lawyer to get a peace bond/restraining order and you can get a temporary restraining order while waiting for your court date.
http://www.crcvc.ca/docs/peacebonds.pdf
If sarah can get one for cory and trevor, it can’t be all that complicated…
Suckster, I bet you have more restraining orders against you than you know about…
Well first of all get things straight. In the case of criminal assualt, abuse or whatever, it is standard that the conditions of bail or release is that the accused is not to have any contact with the victim. Second if your income is that low then you are elligible for legal aid.
As for the effect ofthe order, that depends on the person of which the bond is against.
Lastly, I have many seen people who have put restraining orders on their other half only to breach it themselves because “they love the other person and can’t stand to be away from them”.
I agree completely. Does the system really need to be taking advantage of citizens financially to protect them in a domestic plight? And yes, the costs normally do fall on the woman. How expensive does this peace bond need to be? It’s a piece of paper is it not? You can make a formal complaint to the cops and they will call him and warn him to stay away from you. It’s not as official as a peace bond, but it’ll probably be enough to scare him away.
If the application can be appealed or denied, why bother wasting your money? Sign yourself up for a self-defense course or better yet, just go buy an aluminum baseball bat and start crackin skullz if that fool be steppin on your property.
There are many that walk that financial tightrope,make too much for legal aid but not enough to hire a lawyer.
The nature of a peace bond works for those who actually respect the law and care about the consequences of breaching the terms of the document. Unfortunately a lot of these idiots haven’t a lot of respect for anything be it family, law or decency and only care about imposing their will on the poor unfortunate that took out the peace bond in the first place. The peace bond is fairly useless in these cases and these cases are all too common.
I believe if a person has a history of violence against their family and breaches their court orders, they (the perpetrator) should be sent to a psychiatric facility for an interminent amount of time for own “protection”.
If only we could talk with those women(and some men) that were killed by the same person they took out a Peace Bond agaisnt,how useful a Peace Bond is in NS???But they’re dead.
NF
Vigilantism usually doesn’t work.
no zzz, no bonds or papers on moi. but i do know of one person, that has something like 20 on him. but smelvins don’t heed them either.