What is the scope of a restraining order under the California Domestic Violence Act?

The DVPA authorizes the trial court to issue a restraining order "for the purpose of preventing a recurrence of domestic violence and ensuring a period of separation of the persons involved, if an affidavit...shows, to the satisfaction of the court, reasonable proof of a past act or acts of abuse." ( 6300; see also 6220.) A restraining order may issue under the DVPA either "enjoining specific acts of abuse," "excluding a person from a dwelling," or "enjoining other specified behavior," and the order may issue ex parte, after notice and a hearing, or in a judgment. ( 6218.) The DVPA further authorizes the trial court to make an ex parte order "determining the temporary custody and visitation of a minor child" ( 6323, subd. (a)(1)), provided the party seeking the temporary order has established a parent-child relationship by one of the means specified in the DVPA, which includes proof the party gave birth to the child. ( 6323, subd. (a)(2)(B)(i).) Section 6340, in turn, authorizes the court, after notice to the party to be restrained and a hearing, to issue "any of the orders described" in sections 6320 through 6327 and directs the court, when determining whether to do so, to "consider whether failure to make any of these orders may jeopardize the safety of the petitioner and the children for whom the custody or visitation orders are sought." ( 6340, subd. (a).) The DVPA confers upon the trial court "a discretion designed to be exercised liberally, at least more liberally than a trial

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court's discretion to restrain civil harassment generally." (Nakamura v. Parker (2007) 156 Cal.App.4th 327, 334.)