Family & Safety

Worried about doing this on your own? You may be able to get free legal help.

Part of the safety and protection library, sponsored by Perkins Coie.

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This program will help you prepare your documents. It will ask you questions and you will enter your answers. At the end of the program, you will get a completed set of court forms with instructions that you can save and print.

Form completion time: 15 minutes to 30 minutes

You will be able to save your work in the middle of the program.

This program will help you avoid mistakes when filling out the court forms. Your case could be delayed if there are errors in your forms. If you want to download and print a PDF version, visit the the Illinois Courts Standardized State Forms website. Use Adobe Reader to fill in the PDF forms.

The interview and forms are in English.

Can I use this program?

To use this program, you or the person you are filing the order against must:

• Live in the county you are filing the request in,
• The abuse must have taken place in the county, or
• You must be living in the county temporarily to avoid abuse elsewhere

What do I need first?

To complete this program, you will need:

• Your address. If you do not want the abuser to know where you are staying, you can list an alternate address where you can receive court documents,
• Details about the abuser, such as their physical description, address, and employer, if known,
• Information about any other Orders of Protection or other court cases involving you, the other protected people, or the abuser, if known,
• Details about the abuse and when it took place,
• Details about places you want the abuser to stay away from, and
• Details about the things you want the court to protect, such as your home, personal items, and pets.

If you have children with the abuser, you also need to know:

• School address information (this can be kept confidential), and
• How you want the court to restrict parenting time.

What documents will this create?

This program prepares the following forms. The forms you get will depend on your answers.

• How to Ask for an Order of Protection
• Petition for Order of Protection
• Emergency Order of Protection
• Order of Protection
• Summons (Protective Orders)
• Additional Incidents of Abuse
• Additional Case Information
• Confidential Name & Location of the School or Daycare
• Affidavit of Parenting Time Supervisor
• Certification for Exemption from E-Filing
• Domestic Violence Cover Sheet (Cook County)
• Confidential Protective Order Information Sheet For Sheriff's Use Only (Cook County)

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