Domain shut downs by Registrar?

Has this process matured or is it still a wild-west kind of thing? Last time I saw this, it was with a LARGE registrar and we had to threaten them with a TRO before they'd even put their lawyers on the phone. It was a few years ago. This time the issue is with DOTSTER and they never even bothered to contact our support desk about the issue with the customer domain (and we're listed as the support contact, etc). So if anyone has any advice, or anyone from DOTSTER wants to contact me offline, that'd be great. Thanks in advance, DJ