California Appellate Court ruling says behaving badly is no reason to issue a restraining order

The Sixth District California Appellate Court ruled poor behavior on the part of an attorney is no reason to issue a restraining order. The ruling in Technology Credit Union vs. Rafat reversed a ruling granting a restraining order by  Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Joseph Huber.

The case stemmed from an incident on March 21, 2021, at Technology Credit Union (TCU) in Campbell, Calif., where attorney Mathew Mehdi Rafat allegedly made threatening comments to an employee. During the incident, Rafat was frustrated while trying to open a new account.

Rafat video recorded the encounter with the credit union employee. During the recording, Rafat was accused of aggressiveness and using threatening language that caused fear for the employee.

TCU successfully argued for a restraining order against Rafat.

In the appellate decision, Justice Allison M. Danner acknowledged Rafat’s behavior was “indisputably rude, impatient, aggressive, and derogatory.” Nevertheless, Danner did not accept TCU’s argument that there were implied threats of violence.

Technology Credit Union v. Rafat, H049471. The decision was issued on August 17.