Salmon

I. INTRODUCTION

Stephen Salmon (Husband) and Melissa Beth Salmon (Wife) filed competing

requests for domestic violence restraining orders against each other pursuant to the

Domestic Violence Prevention Act (DVPA). (Fam. Code, § 6200 et seq.)1 The trial

court held a joint hearing on both petitions that included live witness testimony presented

over the course of multiple days. At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court issued

an order granting Wife’s petition and denying Husband’s petition. Husband appeals from

this order.

On appeal, Husband does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support

the trial court’s factual findings or to support the issuance of a DVPA restraining order in

favor of Wife. Instead, he challenges only the trial court’s denial of his petition, arguing

(1) the trial court misunderstood the scope of its discretion to the extent it believed

section 6305 constrained its authority to simultaneously grant both requests for protective

orders in this case; (2) even if section 6305 applies, the trial court abused its discretion by

choosing between two identified aggressors in order to grant relief to only one of them;

and (3) the trial…