The court cannot issue a mutual domestic violence restraining order unless both of the following occurred:
a) Both parties personally appear and present written evidence of abuse or domestic violence. That is, the written evidence cannot be in the form of a response to the request for domestic violence restraining order, but the party must file their own request for domestic violence restraining order.
b) The court makes detailed findings of fact indicating that both parties acted as the initial aggressor and that neither party acted primarily in self-defense.
As an illustration purpose, Mom and Dad get into a heated argument over the decoration of the Christmas tree. Both Mom and Dad escalate the matter and start swinging on each other. If both Mom and Dad file a Request for Domestic Violence Restraining Order and present written evidence (their statement of the event) to the court, the court can issue a mutual restraining order. However, if Dad does not make the independent request, but only states the facts of Mom's actions of the event in his response to Mom's request, the court will not issue a mutual restraining order.