The “Four Corners” Defense To A Petition For Order Of Protection In Illinois

Defending against an Order of Protection In Illinois is not easy. Illinois law makes Orders of Protection relatively simple to secure. An Illinois court need only find that abuse occurred to issue an order of protection. “If the court finds that petitioner has been abused by a family or household member…an order of protection prohibiting the abuse, neglect, or exploitation shall issue” 750 ILCS 60/214 (emphasis mine) The legal standard for determining whether abuse occurred is “the preponderance of the evidence” whether it was more than 50% likely that the abuse occurred. “The standard of proof in such a proceeding is proof by a preponderance of the evidence” 750 ILCS 60/205(a) “[T]he preponderance of evidence, otherwise referred to as the ‘more probably true than not true’ standard.” Holton v. Memorial Hosp., 679 NE 2d 1202 – Ill: Supreme Court 1997 Any instance of abuse that is more likely to have occurred than not will result in an order of protection being issued in an Illinois court. The respondent in an Petition for Order of Protection will, of course, tell their own version of events but the respondent will also do their best to keep the petitioner’s proposed evidence out of court. After all, if there’s no evidence, there can be no preponderance of evidence. The Petition for Order of Protection is a clunky, one-size-fits-all form. The form is mostly checklists. This is hardly the best way to describe a, presumably, horrifying incident of abuse. Specifically, Page 4, Paragraph G gives the Petitioner exactly 6 lines to describe an incident of abuse with a maximum of 4 instances (unless you want to attach your own additional description). The respondent to a Petition for Order of Protection may cleverly use the form’s limitations as a denial of due process (but it shouldn’t work, as I’ll show later). No one shall be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” U.S. Const. amend. V, § 1, cl. 1 “The essence of procedural due process is meaningful notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard” Trettenero v. Police Pension Fund, 333 Ill. App. 3d 792, 799 (Ill. App. Ct. 2002) How could those 4 sets of 6 lines on the form be “meaningful notice” or the full allegations of a Petition for an Order of Protection. A respondent will be quick to object to any testimony that describes anything not written 4 […]

from Russell D. Knight | Family Lawyer Chicago https://rdklegal.com/the-four-corners-defense-to-a-petition-for-order-of-protection-in-illinois/