Quote Originally Posted by Dredly View Post
there should be... but there aren't, and that is the issue. If the person completing a PFA was held liable under civil or criminal law then I would say they are fine... but they aren't. There is no recourse for the person that has a PFA filed against them.
23 Pa.C.S.A. § 6106

(a) 1 False reports.--A person who knowingly gives false information to any law enforcement officer with the intent to implicate another under this chapter commits an offense under 18 Pa.C.S. § 4906 (relating to false reports to law enforcement authorities).
There is recourse, but the victim has to actually file the complaint of false reports for it to go anywhere.

My buddies ex's lawyer TOLD her to do it as it works in their favor to get a speedy divorce in most cases and gives one spouse all the power over the other. Whoever gets the PFA first holds all the cards, holds the house, the possessions... everything.

The hope is the spouse will just plead it out, and then this is used as leverage in the divorce. As soon as her lawyer heard he had a lawyer on retainer and they were fighting it they decided to drop it at the court house (of course after he got charged the lawyers fee for showing up to trial).
And the best part? the vast majority of PFA is "whoever strikes first, WINS". There is no proof necessary, its 100% he said / she said, no witnesses are needed (although they can help or hurt). Its all about "what happens behind closed doors", just like Terroristic Threats... no witnessed needed, "He said he would go berserk if I ever divorced him and now I did so I'm worried"... PFA granted
Sadly, thats a common abuse of the law. The courts are getting better at weeding those out though, but theres still some judges out there that hand them out like candy.

As far as I am aware a PFA DOES forbid the person issued against from handling firearms http://www.womenslaw.org/laws_state_...&state_code=PA
Under certain conditions, I already posted the pertinent section of the law to another poster.