What a Temporary PFA Means Right Now
In Pennsylvania, a no-contact restraining order is called a Protection from Abuse order, or PFA. A served temporary PFA governs your conduct immediately. You are likely required to vacate the plaintiff's residence if you lived together, and to have no contact by any means — direct or indirect, by phone, text, email, social media, or through third parties. You may also be required to surrender any firearms. If children are listed in the order, your contact with them may be restricted or eliminated until the final hearing.
The final hearing is typically scheduled within ten days of the filing. At that hearing a judge decides one of two things: enter a final PFA order for up to three years, or dismiss the petition.
Plaintiffs are provided a free attorney through the court. Defendants are not. If you want representation at the final hearing, you have to retain it yourself, and that surprises people at the worst possible moment.
Allegheny County: file your PFA Intent to Defend →
The Defendant's Situation at the Final Hearing
At the final hearing the plaintiff will appear with an attorney, either free court-provided counsel or private counsel they have retained. The hearing proceeds before a judge. Testimony is taken, evidence is presented, and the judge determines whether the plaintiff has established abuse by a preponderance of the evidence.
Walking into that hearing without counsel, against an attorney, on a matter that touches your housing, your children, and your record, is a serious risk. And once a final PFA is entered, there is no motion to reconsider it.
How a PFA Intersects With Divorce and Custody
PFA matters rarely exist in isolation. They frequently arise at the start of a divorce or custody dispute. At the final PFA hearing the court may also address child custody on an interim basis and may order child support. What happens at the PFA hearing can shape the divorce and custody case that follows.
The firm has represented both defendants and plaintiffs in PFA matters, and for more than fifteen years has served as pro bono counsel to abuse victims through Neighborhood Legal Services. That experience on both sides informs how a defense is built.
"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."
Contact UsWhat to Expect at the Allegheny County PFA Hearing
PFA final hearings in Allegheny County are held at the Family Law Center (FLC), 440 Ross Street. If you do not appear by 10:00 AM, a final three-year PFA can be entered against you by default. Before the parties go in front of the judge, the attorneys often negotiate in the hallway, and the resolutions that come out of that conversation include dismissal, a consent agreement entered without any admission of abuse, a final PFA order, or a continuance. Having counsel at that stage matters — what gets agreed to in the hallway frequently sets the terms of the custody and divorce proceedings that follow.
When the Issue Is Conduct, Not a False Allegation
Not every PFA defense is built on completely false allegations. Sometimes a person did make a poor choice — a message sent, a call placed, a post made, an encounter in person — that a court could read as harassment, stalking, or a threat. No physical violence has to have occurred. Digital and in-person conduct can support a PFA petition on its own if it crosses the statutory line.
The work in those cases is not denial. It is context: explaining what actually happened, challenging how the conduct has been characterized, negotiating a resolution that keeps the matter out of a contested hearing, or showing that what occurred does not meet the legal definition of abuse. Experienced counsel changes how these situations land.
If you have been served with a temporary PFA and you know there was conduct on your part the other side is leaning on — texts, calls, in-person encounters, social media — do not wait. What you do between service and the final hearing can move the outcome. Call before the hearing, not after.
Both Sides of These Cases
The firm takes domestic violence seriously, and believes no one should be a victim of violence or threats of it. At the same time, false claims of abuse do get filed: to gain leverage in a divorce, to take a tactical edge in a custody fight, or simply to push a roommate or former partner out of a shared home. Both of those realities are true at once.
The firm has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in PFA matters for over 18 years, and has provided pro bono representation to abuse victims through Neighborhood Legal Services for more than fifteen years. Having sat at both tables shapes how every PFA matter here is handled, whether the client is defending or seeking the order.
Whatever your circumstances, the job is the same: fight hard for you. That means protecting you from abuse, or keeping a false or overstated accusation off your record and out of the custody and divorce proceedings that ride alongside it.