Orders of Protection

Under the Illinois Domestic Violence Act, a court can enter a civil order of protection on behalf of a family or household member alleging abuse. The order can prohibit any contact with the petitioner, exclude the respondent from a shared residence, restrict access to children, require the surrender of firearms and FOID cards, and impose financial obligations including child support and exclusive use of a vehicle. Violation of any provision is a Class A misdemeanor, with felony exposure for second offenses or for violations involving violence.

Orders are issued in three stages. An emergency order can be entered without the respondent present, on the petitioner's testimony alone, and lasts for up to twenty-one days. An interim order may follow if the case cannot be heard within that window. A plenary order, entered after a contested hearing, can last for up to two years and can be renewed. Each stage has its own evidentiary standard, and each requires a different defensive posture.

Many of the petitions we defend are filed in the middle of a divorce, a custody dispute, or the breakdown of a relationship in which both parties bear responsibility for the conflict. The Domestic Violence Act is a powerful and necessary tool when used correctly, and it is also one that is sometimes used strategically — to gain leverage in family court, to remove a parent from a home, to claim the moral high ground in a contested narrative.

When the allegations do not match the evidence, we say so plainly and we prove it. Text messages, video, third-party witnesses, prior contradictory statements, and the petitioner's own social media activity all become part of the record. We cross-examine carefully, because the goal is not to attack a witness for sport but to show the court — clearly and respectfully — that the petition does not meet the standard the law requires for a plenary order.

Many orders of protection arise in the wake of an arrest for domestic battery, assault, or violation of a prior order. In those cases, the civil and criminal proceedings move on parallel tracks, in different courtrooms, before different judges, often with different lawyers — and what is said in one can be used in the other. A respondent who testifies at a plenary hearing can have that testimony quoted back at trial. A petitioner whose statements at the criminal arraignment differ from the petition can find both undermined.

We coordinate the two cases as a single strategy. That means deciding carefully when to testify, when to invoke Fifth Amendment protections, when to negotiate, and when to litigate. It is one of the reasons we strongly prefer to handle both matters in the same office, and one of the reasons clients in mixed civil-criminal situations seek us out.