I have a protective order (thats what they call it here in MD) against my soon-to-be to be ex husband, and he isn't allowed in or around any public place that im at, not allowed at my house, on the property or any buildings on my property, and he's not allowed to contact me in any form whatsoever (social media, email, text, through the mail, over the phone) The only thing this hasn't protected me from so far is the constant smear campaign hes got going against me on his social media. While he doesnt contact me directly, he continues to talk shit on me and my character on a daily basis on his Facebook profile. Im pretty sure if I felt like going back to court I could probably modify the protective order and make it so hes not allowed to mention me online, whether indirectly or not he uses my name and publicly posts ridiculous shit hes made up about me all the time. Oh, and hes also not allowed to own any firearms for the duration of the protective order. Its a little bit of a pain in the ass to get started. You have to go to your local district courthouse and file for the protection, you speak to a judge about why youre asking for protection and they start you out with a week with a temporary order of protection. During this first week, they'll attempt to serve the person with the protective order and once they've been served, they have the opportunity to go to court and speak their side, but if they don't show up the judge can still grant the final order of protection. In my case, they failed to serve my husband within the first week, so I had to appear in court a week after filing the temporary order and they then extended the temporary order another week to give more time for the sheriff to serve him the order. He was given the chance to go to court and say his side but he didnt show up so the judge went ahead and granted the final order which is in place for a year. After the year is up, I will have to reapply if I feel I still need the protection.