Which Side Are You On?
Served with a temporary PFA. The order governs your conduct from the moment of service. Comply with every term, including any requirement to leave the residence, and file your Intent to Defend. Then read the PFA Defense page and call, because the hearing is days away.
Need a PFA. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. For an order, the Family Law Center at 440 Ross Street takes petitions during the day, and Night Court handles emergencies after hours. Read the PFA for Plaintiffs page, and call.
Hearing already scheduled. The PFA Hearing Process page describes the day. The Temporary Orders page explains what the temporary order does and does not do until then.
Send the Quick Form so the facts are in writing, then call 412.303.9566. Active PFA matters go to the front of the line, evenings and weekends included when the calendar allows.
Allegheny County: file your PFA Intent to Defend
Ten Business Days From Petition to Final Hearing
A Protection from Abuse petition is heard within ten business days of filing. In that window the defendant is served, told of the right to counsel and to present evidence and compel witnesses, warned that firearms may be ordered relinquished, and told that any order entered may be considered in a later custody case. The plaintiff must prove abuse by a preponderance of the evidence under 23 Pa.C.S. § 6107. The judge then does one of two things: enters a final order for up to three years, or dismisses the petition.
No other proceeding in family court moves this fast or carries this much into what follows. A final order can put a parent out of the house and away from the children before any custody case begins, and it sits in the record of that custody case afterward. That is true whichever side you are on, and it is why the first call matters more here than anywhere else in the practice.
Live by the order. Follow every term from the moment of service: no contact by any means, including about the children unless the order provides for it; no return to the residence; no messages through friends or relatives. A violation is indirect criminal contempt, a criminal charge with jail exposure, and it hands the plaintiff an extended order without a second hearing. If the plaintiff contacts you, do not answer; keep the message and tell your lawyer. How long an order lasts and how it ends is covered in How Long a PFA Lasts in Pennsylvania.
One Lawyer, Both Tables
The firm takes domestic violence seriously and believes no one should be a victim of violence or the threat of it. False and overstated claims also get filed, to gain leverage in a divorce, to take a tactical edge in a custody fight, or to push a partner out of a shared home. Both of those things are true at once, and a lawyer who has only ever sat on one side of the courtroom tends to see only one of them.
This practice has represented plaintiffs and defendants in PFA matters for eighteen years and has served as pro bono counsel to abuse victims through Neighborhood Legal Services for more than fifteen. Having sat at both tables shapes how every matter is handled: what a judge will credit, what a plaintiff has to show, what a defendant can answer, and where the two sides can meet without a contested hearing.
"He instilled confidence in me when I had none, took over control of the case, and I received my children back in less than a month."
Where Most PFA Cases Are Decided
Final hearings are held at the Family Law Center. If you do not appear by 10:00 a.m., a final three-year order can be entered against you by default. Before the case is called, counsel for both sides usually talk in the hallway, and that conversation resolves more matters than the courtroom does. The outcomes are a dismissal, a consent agreement entered without any admission of abuse, a final order, or a continuance. Under 23 Pa.C.S. § 6108 the court may approve a consent agreement, and a consent agreement is often the outcome that serves both sides: the plaintiff gets enforceable protection without testifying, and the defendant avoids a finding.
What is agreed in the hallway frequently sets the terms of the custody and divorce proceedings that follow. That is where counsel earns the fee, and it is why a person without a lawyer at that stage is at a disadvantage even when the facts favor them. See Can a PFA Be Negotiated? for the detail.
Limited Scope, Flat Fee, Direct Handling
PFA matters are retained as their own engagement: negotiation, preparation, and attendance at the hearing, handled by Attorney Levine and no one else. The fee is a flat fee quoted on the free call once the facts are known; it is not published because it depends on what the matter involves. The engagement letter states the scope, as Pennsylvania's rules of professional conduct permit for a limited representation. If a divorce or custody matter follows, that is a separate engagement and a separate decision, made after the PFA is resolved rather than during it.
The free call is the first step for both sides. It is ten minutes with the attorney, and for a PFA it is usually enough to tell you where you stand and what the hearing will turn on.
"Scott handled my case at a point when I needed someone who could move quickly and give it to me direct. He worked nights and weekends to build the case, and his involvement protected my employment situation in ways I hadn’t anticipated when I first hired him."
A PFA Is Often the First Filing
Many divorce and custody matters in Allegheny County begin with a PFA. The order decides who is in the house and who has the children for the weeks before anything else is filed, and it colors the custody case that comes after. Handling the PFA well, on either side, is the first move in the larger matter. For what comes next, see Divorce, Custody, and, for the spouse who wants the rest handled without a courtroom, Out-of-Court Settlement.