The Central Registry's Purpose
New Jersey Stat. §2C:25-34 authorizes a Domestic Violence Central Registry. New Jersey's legislature intended the Central Registry to be an enforcement tool in the fight against domestic violence. Public advocates designed the Central Registry for law enforcement and court personnel to get up-to-date information on restraining orders. Domestic violence victims move around the state. Prompt law enforcement access to restraining orders can help police enforce those orders anywhere in the state. The Central Registry also enables police to screen applicants for firearms licenses. Persons convicted of domestic violence or restrained under a domestic violence order also lose the right to possess firearms. New Jersey's Central Registry performs each of these functions.
Sex Offender Registration Differs from the Central Registry
The public is generally familiar with registration requirements for sex offenders. Sex offender registries, though, operate very differently from New Jersey's Domestic Violence Central Registry. The federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) established a national registry for sex offenders. The federal law requires convicted sex offenders to update their registry information whenever they change residence, job, or school. Failure to register or update registry information is a federal crime. States must also supply sex offense conviction information to the federal registry. The federal registry supports a public website where anyone can search for sex offenders by name or location.
In contrast, New Jersey's Domestic Violence Central Registry does not require the person under a restraining order to do anything relating to registration. The person under a restraining order faces no criminal charges relating to registration. Instead, the state courts have an obligation to post restraining orders to the registry. And the information in New Jersey's Domestic Violence Central Registry is not open to the public. The Domestic Violence Central Registry has no public website with a searchable database. Instead, only law enforcement and court personnel are supposed to have access to the information. Don't confuse New Jersey's Domestic Violence Central Registry with sex offender registries. The requirements, access, and use are all different.
Central Registry Funding and Implementation
New Jersey has the agency interest, public funding, and other means to maintain its Domestic Violence Central Registry. New Jersey's Central Registry might not exist but for funding under the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). While the Central Registry is a New Jersey state enforcement tool, the Central Registry has the backing of federal law and federal interests. The Central Registry's implementation would also not have been possible without cooperation among New Jersey's courts, Attorney General's Office, State Police, and local law enforcement. The Central Registry is thus the result of significant state and federal cooperation. Lots of powerful agencies have an interest in the success of New Jersey's Domestic Violence Central Registry. Don't mess with the Central Registry. Just ensure that the Central Registry treats you fairly. Retain New Jersey criminal defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm if you face any Central Registry issues.
New Jersey Restraining Orders Subject to Central Registry
To understand the role of New Jersey's Domestic Violence Central Registry, one must understand New Jersey restraining orders. New Jersey Stat. §2C:25-28 and related law authorizes both temporary restraining orders and final restraining orders to protect persons against domestic violence. Usually, court orders enter only after a hearing in which both sides are present to argue. But in a suitable emergency, New Jersey Stat. §2C:25-28 further authorizes the court to issue a temporary restraining order without the defendant present. The law calls that emergency form of order an ex-parte order. Persons needing protection New Jersey Stat. §2C:25-28(h) even allows the judge to issue an emergency order based on a sworn complaint rather than in-person testimony. The judge must, though, soon follow up a temporary order with a hearing and final order. In short, New Jersey law favors restraining orders.
Under these provisions, New Jersey's courts enter lots of restraining orders. Indeed, you may face an ex-parte temporary restraining order entered in New Jersey's Domestic Violence Central Registry without even knowing about it. The Central Registry raises the stakes on the entry of restraining orders. Police in any New Jersey jurisdiction have instant access to restraining orders. Don't let an unfair, unnecessary, or unduly burdensome New Jersey restraining order ruin your reputation, job, career, and relationships. You are far better off fighting an unnecessary or overbroad restraining order upfront, when the judge is considering issuing it. Don't wait until an order enters the Central Registry and makes a mess of your life. New Jersey criminal defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm is available for your aggressive and effective representation not only in Central Registry issues but also to contest a restraining order request.
Domestic Violence Hearing Officers Issuing Registry Orders
Don't underestimate the large number and ready availability of restraining orders entered in New Jersey's Domestic Violence Central Registry. Requests for restraining orders are so common that New Jersey maintains a Domestic Violence Hearing Officer (DVHO) program that increases the availability of new restraining orders. The DVHO program trains judicial personnel in domestic violence dynamics and the state's law for restraining orders. Those hearing officers can hear ex-parte requests for a temporary restraining order (TRO). An ex-parte hearing is one where only the person requesting the TRO is present. The hearing officer then makes a recommendation to a Superior Court Family Part judge. In short, you may face an ex-parte temporary restraining order that a hearing officer enters and that then makes its way into New Jersey's Domestic Violence Central Registry.
You are not entirely at the mercy of a hearing officer. Procedures exist to protect you against unfair and unnecessary restraining orders entered without your knowledge. If the judge approves the hearing officer's recommendation, the judge will sign the temporary restraining order. But hearing officers can only hear ex-parte TRO requests and recommend temporary orders. Only Superior Court Family Part judges hear and decide contested temporary restraining orders and final restraining orders. The Superior Court will soon schedule a hearing on any emergency order that a hearing officer enters or recommends. A judge will preside in your contested hearing. That means that you may retain a skilled criminal defense attorney to aggressively and effectively advocate for you at the hearing. New Jersey criminal defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm is available for your representation before the Superior Court judge. You can have your day in court. You just need to respond promptly and proactively to notice of an emergency order or notice of hearing. Let attorney Lento assist you.
Enforcement of Restraining Orders in the Central Registry
To understand the Central Registry's role, one needs to understand how police enforce restraining orders. New Jersey Stat. §2C:25-20b(3) requires law enforcement to teams trained in domestic violence crisis intervention. Police, in other words, are generally not naive about domestic violence issues. Police routinely enforce restraining orders when they get a call from or have contact with a protected person who claims the order's violation. Anytime police learn from the protected person or another witness that an order exists, they want to see the order. Police enforce court orders. If the protected person or a witness says that a restraining order is in place that the restrained person is violating, then the police will check the Central Registry. If the Central Registry shows the order, then the police will enforce it.
Enforcement of a New Jersey restraining order means that the police will arrest the restrained person. The issuing court may then punish the restrained person with contempt charges or civil penalties. Restraining orders, especially those that make their way into New Jersey's Central Registry, are serious business. They raise serious risks that you may inadvertently violate or appear to violate an order. They also raise risks that the protected person or that person's family members may misreport your violation or even manipulate an order against you. If you face an enforcement action under a Central Registry restraining order, or you fear unfair enforcement, then retain New Jersey criminal defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm to represent you.
Enforcement Examples
If the police confirm from New Jersey's Domestic Violence Central Registry that a restraining order exists, and they have probable cause to believe that the restrained person has violated the order, then they may arrest the restrained person and transport the restrained person to jail for booking. Arrest and booking into jail is a frightening experience, one typically reserved for defendants facing criminal charges. You may not have imagined that a restraining order could subject you to arrest and jail. But arrest and jailing is indeed a risk of New Jersey domestic violence restraining orders. Examples of enforcement actions resulting in an arrest for violating a restraining order in the Central Registry include:
- the restrained person has violated an order's no-contact provision by approaching, calling, texting, or otherwise contacting the protected
- the restrained person has slapped, struck, shot, struck, or shot at, or otherwise committed an assault and battery on, the protected person
- the restrained person has threatened the protected person with physical injury
- the restrained person has attempted to coerce the protected person by withholding a benefit, right, or privilege
- the restrained person has assaulted or threatened the protected person's child or other family member to coerce the protected person
- the restrained person has locked the protected person out of the protected person's residence under the order
- the restrained person has deprived the protected person of clothing, transportation, or other personal property the protected person controls under the order
The Central Registry's Operation
New Jersey law provides for the entry of temporary and final restraining orders in New Jersey's Domestic Violence Central Registry. Under New Jersey Stat. §2C:25-34, New Jersey's Administrative Office of the Courts maintains the Central Registry. New Jersey Stat. §2C:25-34 requires the courts to enter records for “all persons who have had domestic violence restraining orders entered against them, all persons who have been charged with a crime or offense involving domestic violence, and all persons who have been charged with a violation of a court order involving domestic violence.” Under the registration system, court personnel are to enter all restraining orders into a Family Automated Case Tracking System, also known as FACTS. The Family Automated Case Tracking System ensures that the Central Registry reflects restraining order information.
The Central Registry's Reliability
New Jersey's Central Registry doesn't necessarily pick up every qualifying restraining order. Court clerks make mistakes. They also face backlogs. Restraining orders may not get drafted, signed, prepared, and entered into the FACTS system, even though the Superior Court judge has made the ruling that an order should enter. While the New Jersey legislature and Administrative Office of the Courts intended that orders upload into the Central Registry promptly, that doesn't always happen. On the other hand, some records appear as if a person is under restraint when that is not the case. Court clerks make mistakes. Some orders get reversed or rescinded, without that relief making its way into the Central Registry.
Because of these risks for errors or delays in the Central Registry system, remarkable as it may seem, you may face an enforcement action when you have no current restraining order against you. If you face a restraining order enforcement action, whether due to mistake, delay, or misunderstanding, then retain New Jersey criminal defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm. You need skilled representation to straighten things out, even if your matter involves an administrative mistake. Every administrative system makes its errors. And administrative systems tend to treat people as numbers rather than humans. Don't become a victim of the system. Retain attorney Lento for help.
Central Registry Confidentiality
The public does not ordinarily have access to the Central Registry. Recall that the Central Registry is generally for the courts and law enforcement, not for the public. New Jersey Stat. §2C:25-34 provides for the confidentiality of Central Registry records. Indeed, an unauthorized person's use of the Central Registry may result in conviction of a crime of the fourth degree. New Jersey's legislature truly intended that the Central Registry remain confidential. New Jersey Stat. §2C:25-34 provides for the release of Central Registry information only to:
- public agencies authorized to investigate domestic violence
- police or other law enforcement agencies investigating a report of domestic violence
- police or other law enforcement agencies conducting a background investigation involving an application for a firearm permit
- police or other law enforcement agencies conducting a background check for employment as a police or law enforcement officer
- a court, upon its finding that access to such records may be necessary for determination of an issue before the court
- a clerk of the Superior Court in order to prepare documents that may be necessary for a court to determine an issue in an adoption proceeding
- the Division of Child Protection and Permanency when investigating an allegation of child abuse or neglect
- the Division of Child Protection and Permanency when investigating an out-of-home placement for a child
Confidentiality Breaches
While New Jersey's Central Registry is supposed to remain confidential, breaches of confidentiality are possible. Unscrupulous people may misrepresent their role, status, and intent, to gain access to the system. More commonly, officials with authorized access may get Central Registry information but then fail to maintain its confidentiality, instead leaving it in accessible paper or electronic files. And once the information is out there, it can have a damaging effect. Case files involving restraining orders often include false or exaggerated information due to the emotions and misunderstandings of the parties. Parties generally have tort immunity for false allegations made in court filings, although they may have to answer to the court. But parties or others who spread false court records outside of court lose that immunity.
If you discover that others are spreading false information outside of court proceedings, damaging your reputation, then retain New Jersey criminal defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm to evaluate your options. You may be able to expunge, seal, or correct false information in the Central Registry or court records. You may also have a defamation or invasion of privacy action against those who spread the false information. A demand from your retained attorney that the other side cease and desist from false and defamatory statements may restore order and preserve your reputation.
Vacating a Central Registry Restraining Order
If an old New Jersey domestic violence restraining order is still creating problems or concerns for you, or you just want to get your legal house in order, then you may have the option of vacating the order. New Jersey domestic violence restraining orders can last indefinitely. That means that an order can, in theory, remain in the Central Registry forever. But New Jersey Stat. §2C:25-29(d) authorizes the issuing court to dissolve or vacate a restraining order: “Upon good cause shown, any final order may be dissolved or modified upon application..., but only if the judge who dissolves or modifies the order is the same judge who entered the order, or has available a complete record of the hearing or hearings on which the order was based.”
The big question, though, is what constitutes good cause to dissolve a restraining order. The New Jersey Superior Court case of Carfagno v. Carfagno, 288 N.J.Super. 424 (Ch. Div. 1995), answered that question by listing these factors:
- the victim's consent
- the victim's fear
- relationship of victim to the restrained person
- the restrained person's contempt convictions
- the restrained person's alcohol or drug abuse
- the restrained person's other violent acts
- the restrained person's domestic violence counseling
- the restrained person's health
- the victim's good faith
- restraining orders other states have entered
Gaining the victim's consent and then proving to the court that these factors weigh in your favor typically requires the sensitive representation of a skilled criminal defense attorney. If you want or need to explore vacating an old New Jersey restraining order, then retain New Jersey criminal defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm to represent you. Attorney Lento has the sensitivity, skills, and experience to make the best case for dissolving an old and unnecessary order and getting the order's dissolution into the Central Registry. If that's your goal, then retain attorney Lento.
Attorney Assistance Available for Central Registry Issues
In sum, the assistance of a skilled and experienced New Jersey criminal defense attorney can help you in any number of difficult or intolerable situations related to New Jersey's Central Registry and the domestic violence restraining orders that the Registry records. You may well need that aggressive and effective attorney representation if:
- you face a request for a New Jersey domestic violence restraining order
- you are under a New Jersey domestic violence restraining order already entered in the Central Registry
- a restraining order entered in the Central Registry threatens your housing, relationships, job, or other significant interests
- a restraining order entered in the Central Registry is unfair in its scope or terms or unnecessary
- a vague, ambiguous, or overbroad restraining order makes your compliance uncertain and unduly burdensome
- a restraining order entered in the Central Registry creates unreasonable and unnecessary risks that you will inadvertently violate the order
- a restraining order entered in the Central Registry is no longer needed and could qualify for dissolution or vacation
- the Central Registry contains errors that subject you to enforcement actions that are not available under any court order
New Jersey criminal defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm are available for your aggressive and effective representation in any matter relating to a New Jersey restraining order or the New Jersey Domestic Violence Central Registry. Attorney Lento and his skilled team have the knowledge, experience, and commitment to turn your difficult or intolerable situation into something that you can manage. Contact the Lento Law Firm at 888-535-3686 or online to retain and consult with attorney Lento.
