Serving an order of protection?

David Siegel: When would this mix with a divorce case, or is something they do separately?

Jesse Barrientes: Well, there’s a whole bunch of interplay with that, but before we go into that we need to explain just a little bit about going in for your order of protection. You fill out the forms and you file it as an emergency. An emergency order of protection basically is saying, hey listen, I’m asking the court to grant this on an emergency basis, ex parte – that means just one-sided, without the other side participating. And the reason for that, I’m saying, is because, “Okay. Here, Judge. If I let the other person have notice, he’s going to do the exact same thing that I’m afraid that he’s going to do, that I’ve alleged in the order of protection,” and depending on the evidence – the judge gets a verified petition and the judge is going to ask me some questions about that, and look, and if the allegations are sufficient to sustain the entry of an order of protection, the court is going to enter an emergency order of protection. That brings up another concern.

David Siegel: Yeah. Who has notice?

Jesse Barrientes: Well, and an emergency is for 21 days. But, in order for it to be effective against the other person, the other person has to be served with it, and generally they’ll give it to the sheriff to go ahead and serve that person, but until that person is served, they can’t violate it because they haven’t been personally served; the court doesn’t have what they call personal jurisdiction over that individual.

David Siegel: And that service by the sheriff in these cases is done without cost to the petitioner.

Jesse Barrientes: That’s exactly right.

David Siegel: That’s a service that the county provides, the sheriff’s office provides.

Jesse Barrientes: Right. For an order of protection there are no worries about that. And then, your hearing date then would be set in 21 days with your Joliet divorce lawyer, and hopefully the other person gets served. Then, once they’re served, you come in on that date and you have your hearing on the order of protection to see whether or not it’s going to be extended, or whether or not, after the hearing, the court decides and the judge decides that, “Hey, listen. We only heard your side of the story but now we’re hearing something different.” And that’s not a basis, and it might be a precursor to get an advantage in a divorce, and that’s what we’re talking about, that a lot of times use that.

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