DuPage County Order of Protection: Filing, Hearing, Enforcement

To file an order of protection in DuPage County, go to the DuPage County Judicial Center at 505 N. County Farm Road in Wheaton, complete the Illinois standardized petition at the Circuit Clerk’s office, and ask for an emergency hearing the same day. There is no filing fee, no fee for service, and no fee for certified copies. If the judge signs an emergency order, it protects you immediately and remains in force until your full hearing, typically 14 to 21 days later.¹

Check That You Qualify Before You Go

Illinois limits orders of protection to people with a specific relationship to the abuser. You qualify if the person is your current or former spouse, a blood or marriage relative, someone you live with or used to live with, someone you share a child with, or a current or former dating or engagement partner. Casual acquaintances and ordinary social interactions do not count as a dating relationship.²

You can also file on someone else’s behalf. Parents and guardians can petition for a minor child, and anyone can petition for an adult who cannot file for themselves because of age, health, or disability. Foster parents, legal guardians, and adoptive parents can seek protection for a child if the abuse comes from a family or household member of that child.¹

Abuse under the statute is broader than physical violence. It also includes harassment, intimidation of a dependent, interference with your personal liberty, and stalking. Deliberately withholding medication, medical care, food, or shelter from a person who depends on the respondent because of age, health, or disability also qualifies. You do not need visible injuries or a police report. The court decides based on the pattern of conduct described in your petition.²

Where to Go and What It Costs

Filings go through the Circuit Clerk at the DuPage County Judicial Center in Wheaton.³ The Illinois Supreme Court has approved standardized petition forms that every circuit court must accept, and you can download them from the Illinois Courts website before you leave the house.⁴ An online tool at illinoisprotectionorder.org walks you through the questions and generates a completed petition you can bring in.

Nothing costs money. The clerk cannot charge for filing, amending, certifying, or photocopying the petition or any order, and the sheriff cannot charge for serving the paperwork on the respondent.¹

If You Don’t Want Your Address on the Record

The Illinois Address Confidentiality Program issues a substitute address you can use on government documents, including court filings. It is free, open to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and human trafficking physically located in Illinois, and does not require a police report or an existing protective order. A parent or guardian can enroll a minor or a person with a disability. The program cannot remove your address from records that already exist, but it keeps new filings from exposing where you live, so enroll before you file if this matters to you.⁵

What to Put in the Petition

Give the clerk as much identifying information about the respondent as you have: full name, any aliases, home address, work address, physical description, and date of birth. Deputies rely on this to locate and serve them.

The narrative portion of the petition is where cases are won or lost. Write a chronological account of the abuse with specific dates, specific words that were said, specific actions, and any injuries. A judge reading an emergency petition is deciding in minutes whether to sign an order based on your words on paper, so concrete details carry more weight than general descriptions. If you have screenshots, photographs, medical records, or 911 call logs, note that you have them and bring copies.

Think about what you want the order to require, because you ask for remedies in the petition itself. The judge grants only what you request. Common remedies include:

A direct prohibition on further abuse, harassment, intimidation, or stalking.
A stay-away order covering you personally and specific places such as your home, workplace, or your children’s school.
Exclusive possession of a shared residence, even one the respondent owns or leases, if you also have a right to live there. When both parties have occupancy rights, the court presumes the balance of hardship favors you.
Temporary physical care of your children and conditions on the respondent’s parenting time, including an order not to remove the children from Illinois.
One supervised visit for the respondent to retrieve clothing, medication, and personal items if they are ordered out of the home, with law enforcement or an agreed third party present.
Mandatory counseling for domestic violence, substance abuse, or mental health treatment.
Surrender of all firearms and the respondent’s Firearm Owner’s Identification Card and Concealed Carry License within 24 hours of service.
Temporary support and other injunctive relief the court finds necessary.

If you know the respondent owns firearms, say so in the petition and raise it again at the hearing. Illinois law requires the court to prohibit firearm possession, and spelling it out gives the serving deputy clear authority to take weapons on the spot. Firearms on the respondent’s person or at the location of service go to the officer immediately; everything else must be turned over to local law enforcement within 24 hours, along with the FOID card and any Concealed Carry License, which are forwarded to the Illinois State Police until the order is lifted.⁶

The Same-Day Emergency Hearing

After you file, the clerk sends you to a courtroom for an emergency hearing. Only you appear; the respondent is not notified and is not present. This ex parte procedure exists because warning the respondent in advance could trigger the very harm the order is meant to prevent. The judge reads the petition, hears your testimony, and decides whether to sign an emergency order on the spot.¹

If the order is granted, pick up certified copies before you leave. Keep one on you at all times. Give copies to your children’s school, your employer, your building’s front desk, and anyone else who might need to call police on your behalf.

Service, Interim Orders, and the Plenary Hearing

The emergency order goes to the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office for service. Deputies locate the respondent and personally hand over the petition, the emergency order, and notice of the next hearing. The plenary hearing cannot proceed until the respondent has been served or appears in court. If service takes longer than expected or either side needs more preparation time, the judge can issue an interim order of up to 30 days to keep protections in place.

At the plenary hearing both sides present evidence. The respondent can testify, call witnesses, and submit documents. Bring everything you have: text messages, photographs, medical records, call logs, witness contact information. The standard of proof is a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not that the abuse occurred or will occur. If the judge is satisfied, a plenary order is entered for up to two years and logged in the statewide law enforcement database.⁷¹

Keeping the Order in Force

A plenary order can be extended, and there is no cap on how many times. File the motion to extend before the current order expires; once it lapses, you start over. If no changes to the terms are requested and the extension is uncontested, an affidavit stating that circumstances have not materially changed and explaining why continued protection is necessary can support the motion. On a showing of good cause the court can extend an order indefinitely, until it is vacated or modified. Extensions must be granted in open court.⁷

If the Respondent Violates the Order

Call 911. Do not try to enforce the order yourself. Violating an order of protection is a crime in Illinois, a Class A misdemeanor on a first offense, and police can arrest the respondent on the spot if they have reason to believe a violation occurred. Prior domestic battery convictions or prior order-of-protection violations elevate the charge to a Class 4 felony. Physical contact is not required: showing up at a location covered by a stay-away provision, sending a text when no-contact is in place, or refusing to surrender firearms all qualify.⁸

Help in DuPage County

Family Shelter Service is the primary domestic violence organization in the county and operates a 24-hour hotline at 630-469-5650. Their court advocates can help you complete the petition, go with you to the courthouse, and assist with safety planning. If the respondent has already been charged with a criminal offense, the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office (630-407-8010) can help pursue a criminal protective order alongside your civil order.9

Adult Protective Services (866-800-1409) handles cases involving elderly or disabled adults abused by a household member. The YWCA Metropolitan Chicago operates a confidential 24/7 hotline at 888-293-2080 for sexual violence survivors who may need a Civil No Contact Order, either instead of or in addition to an order of protection.⁹

1
Justia. Illinois Code 750 ILCS 60 Article II – Orders of Protection
2
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 750 ILCS 60/103 – Definitions
3
18th Judicial Circuit Court. 18th Judicial Circuit Court
4
State of Illinois Office of the Illinois Courts. Order of Protection
5
Office of the Illinois Attorney General. Illinois Address Confidentiality Program
6
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 750 ILCS 60/214 – Order of Protection Remedies
7
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 750 ILCS 60/220
8
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 720 ILCS 5/12-3.4 – Violation of an Order of Protection>
9
DuPage Courts. DuPage County Information for Victims of Domestic Violence