This document discusses California's workplace violence restraining order law. It allows employers to seek temporary restraining orders and injunctions on behalf of employees who have experienced unlawful violence or credible threats of violence from individuals that can reasonably be construed to have occurred or could occur at the workplace. The law defines unlawful violence as assault, battery, or stalking, but not acts of self-defense. A credible threat of violence is a knowing statement or course of conduct that would make a reasonable person fear for their or their family's safety, serving no legitimate purpose. The law seeks to protect employees from threats or acts of violence that originate outside of the workplace but could impact or spread to the workplace.

2. Any employer, whose
employee has suffered
unlawful violence or a credible threat of
violence from any individual, that can reasonably be construed to be
carried out or to have been carried out at the workplace, may seek a
temporary restraining order and an injunction on behalf of the
employee and, at the discretion of the court, any number of other
employees at the workplace, and, if appropriate, other
employees at other workplaces of the employer.

3. The tragic loss of innocent lives in Connecticut brings to mind the issue of workplace safety. No
one ants to worry about going to work with fear in their heart that a co worker, boyfriend (or
girlfriend) of a co worker, or other third party with a grievance might inflict violence in the
workplace says employment lawyer in San Diego, Stephen Danz.
Regardless of how quickly our nation gets serious about controlling weapons such as semi-
automatic
rifles, high-powered handguns, etc., we need to know that right now, in the US, there are just about
350 million weapons. One for every man, woman and child in this country. How many employers
have had
lock-down drills? Fire drills we get all the time. But what about the fear of a dangerous individual?
Some may recall the law firm in SanFrancisco, California which was visited by a deranged former
client who killed numerous staffers.
California has enacted a workplace violence restraining order, which very few employers are
aware of. Unfortunately, our experience has been that employers will act immediately to end the
employment of anyone who has a "problem" with a domestic partner, where that partner might
reasonably be suspected of bringing danger to the workplace. As a first step, before the knee-jerk
reaction (oh, by the way, its not uncommon for the terminated employee to be falsely accused of
bad performance in order to justify their termination), employers might consider a restraining
order. I've taken the liberty of re-printing the California Civil Code Section covering the issue.
CAL. CCP. CODE § 527.8 : California Code - Section 527.8

4. (a)Any employer, whose employee has suffered unlawful violence or a credible
threat of violence from any individual, that can reasonably be construed to be
carried out or to have been carried out at the workplace, may seek a temporary
restraining order and an injunction on behalf of the employee and, at the discretion
of the court, any number of other employees at the workplace, and, if appropriate,
other
employees at other workplaces of the employer.
(b)For the purposes of this section:
(1)"Unlawful violence" is any assault or battery, or stalking as prohibited in Section
646.9 of the Penal Code, but shall not include lawful acts of self-defense or defense
of others.
(2)"Credible threat of violence" is a knowing and willful statement or course of
conduct that would place a reasonable person in fear for his or her safety, or the
safety of his or her immediate family, and that
serves no legitimate purpose.
(3)"Course of conduct" is a pattern of conduct composed of a series of acts over a
period of time, however short, evidencing a continuity of purpose, including
following or stalking an employee to or from the place of work; entering the
workplace; following an employee during hours of employment; making telephone
calls to an employee; or sending correspondence to an employee by any means,
including, but not limited to, the use of the public or private mails, interoffice mail,
fax, or computer e-mail.