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Domestic Violence Protection Order Process

Domestic Violence: An Overview

No one deserves to be abused. The laws of this state provide protection to people who are subjected to abuse. One of those laws is the Domestic Violence Protection Act.

In the following section, you will read information about how to get a domestic violence protection order. You may see terms that are unfamiliar to you. A glossary of these terms is included at the end of this section so you can see what these terms mean. But for now, there are three terms which you should know. These are "domestic violence", "family or household members", and "dating relationship".

Domestic Violence

The law defines "domestic violence" as:

Physical harm, bodily injury, assault, including sexual assault, stalking, OR the infliction of fear of imminent physical harm, bodily injury or assault

This includes a wide variety of abusive behavior. Pushing, shoving, hitting, slapping, biting, choking or other conduct which causes harm or puts you in fear of being hurt at the time can be domestic violence. To be considered domestic violence, these actions must occur between family or household members.

Family or Household Members

Under the domestic violence law, this includes:

spouses
former spouses
persons who have a child in common--whether or not they have been married or have lived together at any time
adult persons related by blood or marriage
adult persons residing together now or who have resided together in the past who reside together now or have in the past
persons 16 years of age or older who are residing together now or have resided together in the past and who have or had a dating relationship
persons 16 years of age or older who have or had a dating relationship
persons who have a biological or legal parent-child relationship, including stepparents and stepchildren and grandparents and grandchildren

Dating Relationship

This means a social relationship of a romantic nature. The court will look at things like how long the relationship existed, the nature of the relationship, and the frequency of interaction between the parties.