If someone is texting you, emailing you, posting about you, or getting into your accounts, and you want it to stop, Florida gives you a civil remedy that runs separately from any criminal case: an injunction for protection. The hard part is not the paperwork but choosing the right one, because Florida has three civil injunctions that can rest on stalking, and they are not interchangeable.
The short version: if the other person is a family or household member, the path is ordinarily the domestic violence injunction under section 741.30. If there is no family or household relationship, it is ordinarily the stalking injunction under section 784.0485. Filing under a statute that does not fit your facts is an expensive mistake, because the petition can fail on standing alone, and the delay costs you the protection you were seeking.
What Florida law actually calls cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is defined in section 784.048(1)(d), and that definition has been amended twice since most of the writing on this subject was done. It now reaches two kinds of conduct.
- Engaging in a course of conduct to communicate, or to cause to be communicated, directly or indirectly, words, images, or language by or through electronic mail or electronic communication, directed at or pertaining to a specific person.
- Accessing, or attempting to access, the online accounts or Internet-connected home electronic systems of another person without that person's permission.
Under either prong, the conduct must cause substantial emotional distress and serve no legitimate purpose.
Two amendments matter. In 2019 the Legislature added the second prong, so getting into another person's email, cloud storage, social accounts, doorbell camera, or connected home system without permission can itself be cyberstalking, with no message ever sent. In 2021 the Legislature added the words "directly or indirectly" and broadened "directed at a specific person" to "directed at or pertaining to a specific person." Older commentary, including an earlier version of this post, said that something written about a person rather than to that person would not qualify. That is no longer a safe reading.
Course of conduct, and why a single message rarely does it
Both prongs require a course of conduct, which section 784.048(1)(b) defines as a pattern of conduct composed of a series of acts over a period of time, however short, evidencing a continuity of purpose. That same definition expressly excludes constitutionally protected activity.
Substantial emotional distress is measured objectively, by what a reasonable person in the petitioner's circumstances would experience, not by the petitioner's own sensitivity. That limit runs both ways: it protects a respondent from an unusually fragile complainant, and it spares a petitioner from proving more distress than the law requires.
The legitimate purpose element does real work in family matters. A parent who keeps writing about pickup times, a pediatrician appointment, or a school form is ordinarily serving a legitimate purpose, even when the other parent finds the messages unwelcome. Volume alone is not the test. Content and purpose are.
Three injunctions, and how to tell which one fits
Domestic violence injunction, section 741.30
Available when the parties are family or household members: spouses, former spouses, persons related by blood or marriage, persons who live together or have lived together as a family, and persons who have a child in common. Apart from parents of a child in common, the statute requires that the parties reside or have resided together in the same single dwelling unit. Stalking and aggravated stalking both appear in the definition of domestic violence at section 741.28, so a case built entirely on electronic conduct can support this petition. The petitioner must show either that he or she is a victim of domestic violence, or has reasonable cause to believe he or she is in imminent danger of becoming one.
Repeat, dating, or sexual violence injunction, section 784.046
Repeat violence means two incidents of violence or stalking directed at the petitioner or an immediate family member, at least one within six months of filing. Dating violence covers people who have had a continuing and significant relationship of a romantic or intimate nature within the past six months. That category catches former partners who never shared a household and so fall outside section 741.30.
Stalking injunction, section 784.0485
This one carries no relationship requirement. A neighbor, a coworker, a former friend, a person behind an anonymous account. The petitioner must prove stalking, which by definition means willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly following, harassing, or cyberstalking another person. In practice Florida courts require at least two separate incidents, each supported by competent, substantial evidence. Several messages inside one continuous episode are generally treated as a single incident.
Why the choice is costly to get wrong
The available relief is not the same. A domestic violence injunction can award temporary exclusive use and possession of the shared dwelling, and set a temporary parenting plan and time-sharing schedule on the same basis provided in section 61.13. A stalking injunction directs the respondent to stop and permits other relief the court finds necessary for protection, but it is not the vehicle for housing and parenting questions.
The consequences differ too. Under section 790.233, a person subject to a final domestic violence injunction in force may not have a firearm or ammunition in his or her care, custody, possession, or control. That alone changes what is at stake for a respondent.
Then there is the threshold problem. File under section 741.30 when the required household relationship is absent, and the petition can fail on standing however serious the facts are. The reverse happens too: a stalking petition against a spouse forfeits the housing and time-sharing relief that was actually needed.
What each side is really arguing about
All three petitions are verified, meaning sworn under penalty of perjury, and the clerk may not assess a filing fee. A judge satisfied that the statutory grounds appear can enter a temporary injunction without notice to the respondent, lasting until a hearing or 15 days, whichever comes first. A final injunction follows only after notice and a hearing, and a final stalking injunction stays in effect until modified or dissolved.
The hearing decides the matter, and it cuts both ways. A petitioner has to put on specific incidents with dates and preserved evidence, not a general account of feeling unsafe. A respondent has a genuine opportunity to show the communications served a legitimate purpose, that what looks like a pattern was one episode, that the speech was constitutionally protected, or that the account access was authorized. This firm represents people on both sides of these petitions, and neither position is served by treating the hearing as a formality.
When a family case is already pending
An injunction petition must disclose any other pending case between the parties. If you are in a divorce or paternity case, the two proceed on separate tracks and can produce overlapping orders about the home and the children. Time-sharing entered inside an injunction is temporary. The durable parenting plan and time-sharing schedule is decided in the family case. Coordinating the two is often the difference between an orderly result and two judges working from different assumptions.
In Hillsborough County these petitions are heard in the Circuit Court's Family Law Division at the George Edgecomb Courthouse, 800 E. Twiggs Street in Tampa.
Where to start
Before any filing, identify which statute your facts actually fit, since that choice determines the relief available to you. Then preserve the record: full message threads rather than excerpts, screenshots showing dates and account names, login and device notifications, and the original files. These cases are lost more often on missing proof than on weak facts.
Our page on domestic violence and injunctions covers how we approach these matters, whether you are weighing a petition or have been served with one.