When Both Sides Sue: Inside Tom Sandoval's Restraining Order Battle

When a dispute escalates to the courthouse, the legal landscape can get messy fast. That’s exactly what’s happening in the case of Tom Sandoval, the Bravo alum now caught in a legal tug-of-war with his ex Victoria Robinson and her father, J. Will Robinson.

Here’s what went down: On Thursday, June 24, the 44-year-old Sandoval filed for a domestic violence restraining order against Victoria and Will, claiming they subjected him to verbal and physical abuse during a confrontation on June 3. According to his court declaration, Will assaulted him, and Victoria, 33, struck him in the face during a heated argument over whether she was recording him without permission. But then a video surfaced showing Sandoval shoving Will into a lit fire pit before heading back inside—and Will followed behind.

Three days later, on Friday, June 27, Will filed his own restraining order request against Sandoval, claiming he sustained a ruptured disc in his back, a broken thumb and elbow, and a wound on his heel. The court denied it initially, saying they needed more information at a properly noticed hearing before deciding.

So what happens when both sides are asking a judge for protection from the same incident? According to Rachael Bennett, a certified family law specialist and senior attorney at Sullivan Law&Associates, the key issue becomes determining who was the dominant aggressor. The strongest evidence? That video. But here’s the catch: a single clip, no matter how damaging, doesn’t always tell the complete story. Judges want to know what happened before the footage started rolling, what came after it ended, and whether the video captures the entire confrontation or just one piece of it.

Sandoval’s court documents reveal his version in detail: he wrote that Will“put his face in the hole in the door and smiled telling me he will‘f***’me up,‘destroy’me and called me a‘motherf***er.'”Police arrived and arrested Victoria. Sandoval later acknowledged helping bail her out, even lending her mother financial assistance—a decision he now deeply regrets. He’s also alleged that Victoria has engaged in ongoing harassment, including tampering with his devices and placing a GPS tracker on his car.

As for what’s next, Bennett explains that courts sometimes deny emergency restraining orders early on because both parties can present their full case at a later hearing without duplicative orders. A denial doesn’t mean the case is dead; it just means the judge wanted more information first. What gets granted initially can be dissolved later once the full context emerges—and vice versa. In a situation like this, where video evidence exists and both sides are making serious allegations, the judge will ultimately decide based on what the evidence actually shows about who initiated the aggression and who was defending themselves.

The case underscores how murky these situations can become when competing narratives collide in court—and how critical that video footage becomes when words alone leave too many questions unanswered.