Protective Order Information

About Protective Orders

If you are in danger or afraid your abused may harm you, call 911 immediately.

A protective order is a legal document issued by a magistrate or a judge to help you protect yourself, your children, and/or other family or household members from someone who is hurting your or causing you fear.

A protective order is a legal tool to help protect against future violence, force, or threats.  It is not a shield.  Survivors are in the most danger immediately after leaving the abusive relationship.  

You are not required to file criminal charges in order to request a protective order.

The person requesting the Protective Order is referred to as the petitioner.  The person from whom the petitioner is seeking protection is the respondent. You should bring the respondent’s home and work address with you. Petitions can be requested without an attorney and there is no fee to file the petition.

Protection begins once the respondent is personally served with the order.

  1. Qualifying for a Protective Orders
  2. Petition for a Protective Order
  3. Types of Protective Orders

Qualifying for a Protective Order

To qualify for a protective order, you must have been, within a reasonable period of time, subjected to an act of force or a threat of violence that places you in reasonable fear for your own, or your children’s, safety and well being.

Violence force or threat that results in bodily injury or places you in reasonable fear of death, sexual assault, or bodily injury.