What are the causes for an order of protection?

David Siegel: Let’s talk about the different types of orders of protection, because there are several. Let’s say somebody comes to your Joliet office, they’re not married, they’re in a relationship, they live together in an apartment, and there’s been some mental abuse, maybe a little bit of physical abuse, and all of a sudden there’s a huge threat that I’m going to do X to you if you’re not out of this apartment, or something like that, and they come to your office. What are you going to do for that person?

Jesse Barrientes: Well, we’re going to talk about whether or not they are really, really frightened or whether they’re concerned for their safety. Actually, I’ve had people come into my office who weren’t physical abused, and the advice is immediately – actually, even before they come into the office – if that’s what you think, you need to go immediately down to the courthouse and obtain an order of protection, and they can get it on their own. It’s called pro se; that means to represent themselves, to take care of that. That’s what I usually do, in the context, but we’ll talk a little bit about that later. Of a divorce, we can do a temporary restraining order to be followed by a preliminary injunction, which is very similar.

David Siegel: Okay. But in this case, this woman, in this example, there’s been violence in the past, this gentleman that she lives with does have weapons, he’s threatened to use the weapons. Now, he might just be blowing smoke to try and scare her, and it’s some type of course of action or whatnot, but she’s in fear and she doesn’t want to do it pro se. She wants to do it through a Joliet attorney. She wants to make sure it’s done right, and frankly, she’s nervous and she’s upset.

Jesse Barrientes: Well, that’s something that we would do and have to do immediately, and complete the order of protection. A lot of different places, it depends upon where you’re at – which county and the procedures are just a little bit different. But generally, the information that goes into the form – and the forms are kind of the same – first you would need a verified petition for an order of protection where you set forth some basic information – for example, your name, address, the name and address of the other person, some more personal information. But sometimes, if somebody has left a residence and they’re worried that the other person is going to find them, it might be a situation where their information, where they’re currently staying, is not going to be recorded or put down in the petition, for safety issues. So that’s something we would do. We would complete it; there would have to be some kind of allegation – Why are you here? What did the person say? – and that would be included in the petition. There would be also allegations, probably, of the previous situations that led the person to believe that the spouse or the boyfriend or fiancée was going to act on those threats, especially if there are guns or other types of weapons involved.

David Siegel: So with regard to these allegations that the petitioner is going to allege in his petition, they have to be imminent, right? They have to be realistic. They can’t be; he might do this in the future. It’s got to be pending, immediately. Is that correct?

Jesse Barrientes: Yes. They have to be worried that that’s going to happen. You know, this brings up also another concern, too, that depending upon the level of the threat and the severity and the circumstances – because each situation is really different – that might also be an issue for the police. We have here assault and battery. Battery is unpermitted unlawful or offensive touching of somebody, and it can be as – and I don’t want you to prosecute me here, Dave – but it could be as little as that, as yanking somebody [crosstalk].

David Siegel: You could be spitting on someone.

Jesse Barrientes: It could be spitting on somebody. It could be me just laying my hand on your shoulder, or it could be me clocking you, and we have all different kinds of things that happen. Orders of protection also happen in the course of a battery. So if it’s something like that – say that it’s not a touch, it’s an assault – assault is a threat that the person has an imminent fear of danger immediately, although I don’t think the police really arrest folks for that so, so much, but it is an arrestable offense. What that can do is get somebody out of the house, to give the other person an opportunity to cool off, and also give the other person an opportunity to go out and to get that order of protection.

Back to Joliet Divorce Lawyers & Attorneys Family Law Firm in Illinois

Divorce book

Joint parenting agreements