100 battered women can't be wrong
Joab, I agree with you on everything except a fine point regarding restraining orders. It's not ALWAYS a good idea -- try your line of argument down at the battered women's shelter. Ask the staff how many women are dead because they got a restraining order.
If someone is determined to break the law, a piece of paper won't stop them. That's why gun control doesn't make sense.
If you're dealing with a garden variety *******, you're probably OK, but there is a long history of "she got a restraining order, then he came over/to her work/to her parents' and killed her."
Sometime the correct response is to avoid contact. I'm not saying run away -- I'm saying ignore and avoid. If "he" calls, don't ever call back, even when (not if) he says "OK, this is my last call, I swear, I just want to apologize."
When a women ignores someone for 2 months and 80 phone calls, then calls back and says "LEAVE ME ALONE!" the jerk now knows the cost of talking to her is 2 months and 80 calls.
If you don't ever (ever ever ever) give him a response, more likely than with a restraining order, he'll get bored and go away. That's NOT to say don't prepare for further violence, just don't give him any feedback -- don't let him know he's getting a rise out of you.
My two cents