When seeking an injunction in Florida to prevent someone from contacting you, pay careful attention to which statute best applies. This is the (unfortunate) lesson of Tyler Sumners v. Lindsey Thompson.

After meeting on Craigslist, the parties had a four year consensual sexual relationship punctuated by periods of time when they were dating other people. After Thompson broke off the relationship, Sumners appeared at Thompson’s house uninvited and sought to contact her by cellphone, email, and social media. He never made any threats however Thompson claimed that this was a pattern of behavior and she was afraid.

Sumners raised two defenses: one, the parties were not “dating” for an injunction against dating violence to apply. Two, there was no competent, substantive evidence that Thompson was reasonably in imminent danger of harm. The court agreed only with the second point.

Sumners lost his “we weren’t dating” argument because, under Florida Statute 784.046(1)(d), the injunction requires a “continuing and significant relationship of a romantic or intimate nature.” The court held: “[n]othing in the statute requires that the parties go out on a date, at least in the traditional sense of a couple going to dinner and a movie.” Instead, a purely sexual relationship (to use the vernacular: “friends with benefits” or “booty call”) still fit the statutory definition.

Sumners won the appeal, however, because he had not said or acted in a threatening manner and a single appearance at Thompson’s house plus persistence with calls and social media contact was not enough to meet the “imminent harm” standard.

The concurrence, however, tells the true lesson: Thompson and/or her lawyers could have considered injunctions against stalking, sexual violence, or other means to get a domestic violence injunction.

Are you facing an injunction or considering seeking one? Make sure you retain a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction who has experience litigating both sides of all types of injunction claims and who has experience with social media so that evidence is properly considered, obtained, and admitted into evidence in your favor.

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