Five types under Florida law

• Domestic violence injunctions, between family or household members or people who have a child together
• Repeat violence injunctions, which require two incidents, one within the past six months
• Dating violence injunctions, arising from a significant romantic relationship
• Sexual violence injunctions
• Stalking injunctions, including cyberstalking

Each type has different elements the petitioner has to establish, and a petition filed under the wrong category is vulnerable for that reason alone.

Temporary orders and the final hearing

A temporary injunction can be entered the same day a petition is filed, without you present and without your side being heard at all. It typically lasts about fifteen days, until the final hearing.

That final hearing is the whole case. It is the one real opportunity to present evidence, call witnesses, and cross examine the other side. People show up to it alone, assuming they will simply explain the misunderstanding, and leave with an order against them that lasts years.

What an injunction actually costs you

• You may be ordered out of a shared home, even one you own or pay for
• Contact with your children can be restricted or supervised
• You must surrender firearms and ammunition, and you lose the right to possess them
• It appears in background checks and can affect employment and professional licenses
• It can carry immigration consequences
• Any violation, even a text message or a friend passing along a message, is a criminal offense

That last point is what turns a civil order into a criminal case. Agreeing to an injunction just to make the hearing end quickly is rarely the shortcut people think it is.

If you are seeking protection

These cases run both directions. If you are the one who needs an order, the petition has to be specific and supported, and the final hearing still requires evidence. A petition that reads as vague or conclusory frequently gets denied, which can leave the person who filed it worse off than before.