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Orders of Protection and No Contact Orders

If you are being harassed or abused you may be able to obtain an Order of Protection or a Stalking/No Contact Order. If granted, the order protects you from further abuse, harassment, interference with personal liberty or stalking. An Order of Protection or No Contact Order also provides that your abuser is prohibited from making contact with you either in person, by phone or electronic communication, or any other form of communication. Orders of Protection or No Contact Orders also usually prohibit your abuser from coming within 500 feet of you as the protected party.

To be eligible for an Order of Protection the parties must have a “relationship”. This includes spouses, former spouses, paramours, parents, children, and step-children. This also includes a person you have a residence in common with or there was a previous dating or engagement relationship. If you do not meet the relationship criteria under an Order of Protection, you can ask for relief under the relatively new law of Stalking/No Contact Orders.

In the jurisdictional area covered by the Keene Law Office, the Circuit Clerk's Office has the Petitions for Order of Protection online to be completed and filed with the Court. The Court may have you appear in person on your emergency petition for Order of Protection or via Zoom. The Clerk of the Court, after those documents have been filed, will schedule a hearing for the Emergency Order of Protection at which you would testify as to the abuse that you spell out in your petition. There would be no notice to the other side on the Order of Protection for the emergency hearing. You may be granted an Emergency Order of Protection on behalf of minor children which prohibits the other party from having contact with you and the children or from them being in the residence with you until after a full hearing on the Order of Protection. Quite often clients contact our office after they have been granted an Emergency Order of Protection or had it denied. We also represent individuals who are being accused of harassing or abusing a party who filed a Petition for Order of Protection or No Contact against them.

The Emergency Order of Protection can be devastating to individuals who have one entered against them on an immediate basis. Once they are served with the Order of Protection, they may be ordered to remove themselves from their residence or may be ordered not to have any contact with their children. There are other repercussions from a full Order of Protection being entered, including an impact on people's ability to keep their jobs. There are certain types of employment that cause you to lose your job if a Plenary Order of Protection gets entered against you. Usually you do not lose your job if an Emergency Order of Protection is entered against you, but you should seek legal counsel right away.

In completing the Petition for Order of Protection it is very important to list in detail and in order of most recent incidents of abuse or harassment that has occurred to you or your children by the other abuser. This is what the Judge considers in determining if you get the Emergency Order of Protection or not.

If you are served with an Emergency Order of Protection or the Petition for Order of Protection and you fail to appear on the court date, the Court can proceed on an Order of Protection without you and enter a Plenary Order of Protection of up to two years. The normal amount of time granted in a Plenary Order of Protection is two years. You should always seek legal counsel if someone has gotten on Order of Protection or a No Stalking/No Contact Order against you as this can affect your ability to see your children as well as affect your job or livelihood and open you to possibly being charged criminally if you were to have contact with the other side for a violation of the Order of Protection. The laws pertaining to Orders or Protection are under the Illinois Domestic Violence Act 750 ILCS 60/101-60/401.

If you do not meet the legal requirements for an Order of Protection you may file a verified petition for a civil No Contact Order, which is pursuant to 740 ICLS 22/213. Like the Order of Protection you would complete the verified petition for civil No Contact Order on the Circuit Clerk's website and in that petition list in detail and in order of most recent incidents of abuse or harassment that has occurred for the Court to consider. It is similar to the Order of Protection and an Emergency Order could be entered setting a trial date or the Judge could just set it for a trial date and notice is provided and served to the other party of that hearing. At that hearing date you must provide evidence and testimony and not simply rely on the petition you provided to the court. Evidence includes documentation, texts, emails, pictures, and your testimony as well as witness testimony.

The Keene Law Office has represented clients in cases of No Contact/No Stalking Orders since the law went into effect. We have represented in cases involving neighbors, individuals harassing people at their place of employment or business, former friends or acquaintances, cases being filed on behalf of minor children to keep individuals away from the child or children, etc. You can contact Keene Law Office to see if your situation would be appropriate for a No Contact Order.

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