7 Things You Should Know About Protective Orders

What Can the Protective Order Do?

The court will issue you an Order of Protection if they look through the evidence and believe you need protection from the harassment or abuse you’ve outlined. However, it’s important to remember that each case is different, so an Order of Protection may look completely different from judge to judge and case to case. Some of the biggest things that a judge can place in an Order of Protection include ordering the offender to do the following:

• Stay away from your children, their babysitters, and their school
• Stop the abuse, violence, and harassment
• No longer contact or message you or your children

Judges can also intervene in other matters relating to custody or visitation, like requiring the abuser to pay for additional expenses like property damage or medical care. Judges can also include recommendations or requirements that the abuser must attend recovery programs to work on managing their behavior.

Orders of Protection Don’t Last Forever

An Order of Protection is a great way to protect yourself and your family, but they are not permanent. The standard time frame for an Order of Protection is one year, but you can renew it if you petition the court again. After the court issues the order, the judge can extend the timeframe. Thankfully, there is no fee to petition the court for a protective order or a renewal.

The court can also end your protective order entirely, depending on the situation. For example, as mentioned in the last point, the judge could place a requirement that the person you’ve taken the protective order against seek some kind of recovery program. The judge could stipulate in your protective order that, upon completing the program, the judge will dismiss the order.

Emergency Orders of Protection

Orders of Protection are important ways to protect victims from their abusers, but the court isn’t always known for being quick with how they do things. You could file for a protective order, and the court may not get back to you for a while. Illinois courts can also issue Emergency Orders of Protection where they don’t need to give notice to the alleged abuser.

These orders will last between two and three weeks, and once that time is up, the court will have a hearing to see if they need to take additional action. If the court determines the evidence is sufficient, and they need to prolong protection, it will also issue a Plenary Order of Protection for two years.

How Do These Protective Orders Help?

These protective orders are meant to do a lot to help the victims in abusive situations, but how do they actually help? Well, if you have an Order of Protection, one of the first and most obvious benefits is that law enforcement can arrest the abuser if they violate the protective order. When you have a protective order, law enforcement will also take your calls more seriously. If your abuser kicked you out of your home, protective orders also make it easier for an officer to accompany you to return to the home and retrieve personal items.

It’s important to know about protective orders, so that you can take the necessary steps to protect yourself if you’re in a situation where someone is harassing or abusing you. A protective order will help protect you and your family, but obtaining one can be tricky since you need to compile evidence and present it to the court. If you want a protective order, don’t hesitate to come to us at Schiller DuCanto & Fleck. We are the Chicago domestic battery lawyers you can trust to help you keep you and your family safe.