The Court Does Have The Discretion To Do That If Two Things Occur.
Video Transcribed: If someone files a bogus protective order against you, can you get them to pay your attorney’s fees that you used to defend it? I’m Tulsa attorney James Wirth, and I’m about to answer that question.
Okay, so if someone files a protective order against you and it’s bogus, it’s got a bunch of lies in it, ultimately goes to a hearing and that is dismissed, but you’re out all this money paying an attorney to defend you on these claims. So can you get the plaintiff, the petitioner in the case, ordered to pay your attorney’s fees? Well, it depends. The court 
does have the discretion to do that if two things occur.
One, the judge makes a finding that after hearing the evidence it is a frivolous filing that had no merit and two, that there is no victim, there’s no actual victim in the case.
If the court makes those two findings, then the court may order that the petitioner be ordered to pay the other party’s attorney’s fees.
The general rule for cases in America and in Oklahoma is that each party pays their own fees. But there are certain statutory exceptions and that is the statutory exception for protective orders is if it’s a frivolous filing where no victims exist, then the petitioner can be ordered to pay the defendant’s attorney’s fees.
In practice, the courts rarely, rarely do that. They rarely make a finding that it’s a frivolous filing and they rarely order attorney’s fees, because they don’t want to create a burden or fear for people to file a protective order. They have a tendency to err on the side of caution, which is why those rarely get granted.
That said, they do on occasion get granted and that is something that if you’re defending a protective order, you want to make that request. You need to know that the statute requires a finding of a frivolous filing so that you need to ask the court make specific findings on that, which is why it’s a good idea to have an attorney and have knowledge on that. But don’t take my word for it and this general information gets specific information from a consult. Talk to an attorney. If you want to talk to me, call me (918) 932-2800
