What's involved in getting a Restraining Order?

My sister and I are legal adults. My biological mother is a sociopath, a pathological liar, and a recurrant drug addict.

My sister and I have told her that we no longer want any contact with her but she insists on calling my sister. My sister is shy and afraid to tell her off so I am now having to answer the telephone every time it rings just so I can keep that woman from bothering my sister.

She just won't take no for an answer and keeps trying to manipulate her way into mine and my sister's life.

What would be the process in getting a restraining order taken out against my biological mother? I don't know if it makes a difference but we live in Arizona.

If she is mentally unstable, a restraining order is not going to stop her from calling. If you don't have caller I.D., get it. If you do have caller I.D. don't answer. You're only other choice is to change the number.

go to the court house and file one with courst clerk...you must state your reason as to why and any incidents that have occurred to you or your sister....the judge will the read it and/or sign the order

You would ordinarily go before a judge and explain why the other person's otherwise legal behavior is so egregious that a Court should order her to stop doing it. There will be paperwork to fill out and fees to be paid. Once you've applied for it, you'd probably have to have someone serve your mother with a notice of the hearing that you'd be having before the judge. Your mother would have the right to appear and tell her side of the story (which is going to be, "Gee, I didn't know my *daughter* didn't want me to call, only that ungrateful son of mine")

However, if your sister is a competent adult I don't know that a judge will consider your request for an order on her behalf. If your sister wants the order, she's almost certainly going to have to be the one to ask for it.

If you two live together, then you can argue that you want the order and that one of the terms of the order be that your mother not call *your* house.

If Arizona has an "annoying or harrassing" phone call statute (we do here), you might be able to make a complaint to the police. Perhaps that would stop the calls. For that matter, perhaps just threatening to get the restraining order would make her stop. Sometimes it does.

Good luck. Family matters like these are often difficult to craft decent solutions for.

consider changing the phone number and make it unlisted for starters.

I am not really sure but you should call your local police or court house and they should be able to tell you.