DuPage County Orders of Protection Attorney
Our Law Firm Can Help Ensure Your Family Is Safe
Are you or your children scared for your safety? Do you feel threatened by your significant other? Are you a victim of domestic violence?
You may know something needs to change without knowing exactly what to do next. Do you need an order of protection? What can the court actually order? What happens if you have children together or you still live in the same home?
Start with what is happening right now. What are you afraid of? What has already happened? Are your children involved? Is there an immediate safety concern?
Those details matter because the protection you need should fit the situation you are actually facing. You do not need to know which type of order to request before you ask for help. At Erlich Law Office, we can look at what is happening, explain your options, and help you decide what steps make sense from here.
Call Denise Erlich at (630) 538-5331 to schedule a confidential consultation and discuss your options for obtaining an order of protection.
“An order of protection is not about winning a fight; it is about figuring out what you need to feel safe and whether the court can give you that protection. Sometimes the hardest part is simply knowing what your options are.”
You do not need to figure out your next step alone. If you are worried about your safety, your children, or what may happen after you seek protection, talk with us about your options. When it is safe to do so, call Erlich Law Office at (630) 538-5331 to schedule a confidential consultation.
Orders of Protection Attorney Denise Erlich Can Help
When you are considering an order of protection, the question is not simply whether you can ask the court for one. You need to understand what the order can accomplish, whether it fits your situation, and what may happen after you file.
Maybe you need immediate protection. Maybe you are worried about how an order could affect your children, your home, or an ongoing divorce or parenting case. Or maybe you are not sure whether what has happened meets the legal requirements at all.
You should not have to guess. We can look at the circumstances you are dealing with, explain how the law applies, and help you make an informed decision about what comes next.
What Are Orders of Protection?
Orders of protection are court orders intended to stop abuse and provide specific protections for you and others covered by the order. Under the Illinois Domestic Violence Act, these orders are most commonly used when the abuse involves a family or household member, but the Act also protects certain other people and high-risk adults with disabilities in specific circumstances.
An order of protection is not simply a piece of paper telling someone to stay away from you. Depending on your circumstances, the court can order the respondent to stop abusive, threatening, harassing, or intimidating behavior and put specific restrictions in place to protect you and your children.
For example, an order may:
- Prohibit further abuse, harassment, intimidation, or interference with your personal liberty
- Order someone to stay away from you or specific locations
- Give you exclusive possession of a shared residence in appropriate circumstances
- Address the safety and care of your children
- Prevent someone from taking or hiding your children
- Restrict certain types of contact
What should your order include? That depends on what you need protection from. An order that makes sense when you are worried about unwanted calls and surveillance may look very different from one involving physical violence, a shared home, or concerns about your children.
Illinois has three types of orders of protection: emergency, interim, and plenary.
Emergency Order of Protection
An emergency order of protection takes effect immediately upon approval from the court and lasts between 14 and 21 days. A petitioner, or EOP holder, can seek this type of protection order without notifying the respondent when the requirements for emergency relief are met. The court will schedule another hearing to determine whether to issue further protection.
This is the option designed for situations where waiting for a full hearing could leave you or another protected person at risk.
Interim Order of Protection
An interim order can provide protection while your case is moving toward a fuller hearing. It may remain in effect for up to 30 days. Whether an interim order is available depends on where your case stands and whether the legal requirements involving notice or service have been met.
Plenary Order of Protection
The court issues plenary orders after the respondent has received the notice required by law and the judge decides whether to issue the order.
Plenary orders generally remain in effect for a fixed period for up to two years, although different duration rules can apply when an order is entered as part of another civil or criminal proceeding.
Domestic Violence in Illinois
Domestic violence refers to abuse occurring between family or household members in Illinois. Abuse, as defined by the state, includes physical abuse, harassment, intimidation of a dependent, interference with personal liberty, and willful deprivation.
That legal definition matters because domestic violence does not always look like a black eye or another visible injury.
Harassment can include conduct such as creating a disturbance at your job or school, threatening you with physical force or confinement, or keeping you under surveillance when the legal requirements are met.
Someone controlling where you go, repeatedly contacting or following you, threatening you, or using your children as part of the abuse can be every bit as important to discuss as an incident of physical violence.
Not every unhealthy, frightening, or high-conflict relationship automatically meets the legal requirements for an order of protection. But you do not need to diagnose your own situation before speaking with an attorney. If you are unsure whether what is happening qualifies as abuse under Illinois law, tell us what is happening. We can start there.
What Should You Do If You Need Protection From Domestic Violence?
Illinois offers protections to victims of domestic violence. If you suffer abuse at the hands of a family or household member, various legal options are available. Obtaining an order of protection, criminal charges, or both may be possible depending on the circumstances.
If you believe you or your children are in immediate danger, your first concern is safety. Get to a safe place and contact emergency services when necessary.
When you can safely do so, preserve information that may help show what has been happening. That could include text messages, emails, photographs, police reports, medical records, witness information, or a timeline of incidents.
Do not put yourself in danger trying to collect evidence. Your safety comes first.
You can also talk with an attorney about whether an order of protection is appropriate and what protections you should ask the court to put in place. You do not need to walk in already knowing the legal terminology or what form you need to file.
Filing for an Order of Protection in DuPage County
If you need an order of protection, one of the first questions is usually pretty simple: What happens when you file?
Your petition tells the court who needs protection, your relationship to the other person, what has happened, and what you are asking the judge to do. If you are seeking an order in DuPage County, your case is handled through the Circuit Court of the 18th Judicial Circuit.
If you need emergency protection, a judge may be able to consider your request without advance notice to the respondent when the legal requirements are met. If an emergency order is granted, that is usually not the end of the case. Additional court proceedings may be scheduled to determine whether protection should continue.
This is where the details become important. What incidents should you include? What evidence do you have? What protections should you ask for? What happens if the other person disputes your allegations? What if you have children together?
You should know the answers to those questions before you walk into a hearing, not be trying to figure them out while you are standing in front of the judge.
How Can an Orders of Protection Attorney Help?
An order of protection can affect where someone lives, whether you can have contact with each other, how you exchange children, and what happens in a related divorce or parenting case. This is not something you want to approach as a generic form-filling exercise.
In addition to identifying the protections that make sense for your situation, we can help you:
- Prepare your petition and explain what information the court needs
- Organize messages, photographs, records, witness information, and other relevant evidence
- Prepare for emergency, interim, and plenary proceedings
- Address parenting and child-safety issues connected with the order
- Respond when something changes or an order is allegedly violated
- Present your position clearly in court
And sometimes the most important part is knowing how the order of protection fits into everything else. If you are also facing divorce, parenting-time problems, or disputes over parental responsibilities, decisions made now can matter beyond the protective-order case itself.
The goal is not to make your situation more combative than it needs to be. The goal is to understand what protection you need and make sure the court understands why you are asking for it.
Who Are Considered Family or Household Members in Illinois Domestic Violence Cases?
You do not have to be married to someone or even currently live with them, to potentially qualify for an order of protection. Illinois law defines family or household members broadly. It includes:
- Spouses and former spouses
- People who have or previously had a dating or engagement relationship
- Parents, children, stepchildren
- People related by blood or a current or former marriage
- People who currently share or formerly shared a home
- People who have or allegedly have a child together
- Certain people with disabilities and their personal assistants or caregivers
A casual acquaintance or ordinary social or business relationship is not enough by itself to create a dating relationship under the Act. If you are unsure whether your relationship qualifies, do not assume the answer is no simply because you were never married or never lived together.
FAQs About Orders of Protection in Illinois
1. What happens if someone violates an order of protection in Illinois?
Once an order of protection is in place, the respondent must follow its terms. Prohibited contact, going somewhere the respondent has been ordered to stay away from, or other conduct barred by the order can have serious consequences. Depending on the circumstances, a violation can result in arrest or criminal charges.
If you believe the order protecting you has been violated and you are in immediate danger, contact law enforcement.
2. Can orders of protection impact child custody in Illinois?
They can. Domestic violence concerns about a child’s safety can affect the parental responsibilities and parenting time orders a court enters.
An order of protection can also include temporary provisions involving children. Depending on the facts, the court may restrict parenting time, require supervision, or impose other conditions intended to protect the child.
3. Can orders of protection keep the other parent from contacting my children?
In Illinois, orders of protection can prohibit alleged abusers from contacting minor children. The other parent can be prohibited from going within a specified distance of your child’s school or place of residence. Phone calls and other attempts to contact your children may be prohibited as well.
The exact restrictions depend on what the judge orders, so the language in your signed order matters.
4. How long does an order of protection last in Illinois?
It depends on the type of order. Emergency orders generally last between 14 and 21 days. Interim orders can last up to 30 days. A plenary order entered under the Illinois Domestic Violence Act generally lasts for a fixed period of up to two years, although different rules can apply when the order is connected to another court proceeding.
5. Do you need a lawyer to file for an order of protection?
You are not required to have a lawyer simply to ask the court for an order of protection. But getting the paperwork filed is only one part of the process.
You may need to decide what protections to request, present evidence, testify about what happened, respond to the other person’s version of events, and address parenting or family law issues at the same time. Having an attorney means you can prepare for those issues before you get to court.
“Erlich Law Office helped me with exactly what I needed while going through a divorce. Not only was Denise thorough and professional, she was compassionate as well. Denise helped me understand my rights but also to make sure that my long term interests, and the interests of my children, were well protected. Her rates were very reasonable and she was able to connect me to other resources that I was in need of during this very difficult time in my life.”
Talk to a DuPage County Orders of Protection Attorney
You may be scared. You may be angry. You may still love the person you need protection from. You may simply know that what is happening cannot keep happening.
You do not need to have everything figured out before you call. We can talk about what has happened, what you are worried about now, and what legal protections may be available to you and your children.
When it is safe to do so, call Erlich Law Office at (630) 538-5331.