I humbly and respectfully submit that the following clearly do not meet the burden of proof under the preponderance of evidence standard and thus do not support entry of a protective order in domestic relations proceedings:
- It could have happened as alleged
- I find the applicant credible (but I won’t mention that a) I also find the respondent equally credible; or b) I can’t articulate a non-subjective or non-“better safe than sorry”-based/derived argument for why I find the petitioner more credible than the respondent)”
- Better safe than sorry/err on the side of caution
- “I don’t want it on my conscience that I may have denied a real victim a protective order simply because the applicant cannot meet the burden of proof”
- “This is a high-conflict relationship . . . “
- “I don’t want to wait until someone ends up in the hospital or dead”
- “These two need to be separated”
- “The petitioner has made the allegations required to obtain a protective order”
