Órdenes de Restricción

The law assumes that certain stalking behaviors can cause you emotional distress. Most people would feel significant mental suffering, anxiety, or alarm if someone did these things to them. These behaviors include:

• causing a disturbance at your workplace or school;
• calling your home or workplace over and over after you or your employer told the person to stop;
• following you around in a public place, more than once;
• watching or monitoring you time after time by staying outside your home, school, workplace, vehicle, or another place you are at and looking into your windows;
• threatening the safety of your minor child or a family member; or
• threatening to use physical force against you, or to confine or restrain you, one or more times.¹ 

If the abuser does any of these things, the law creates a “rebuttable presumption.” This means the judge will automatically assume that the abuser knew, or should have known, that their actions would cause you emotional distress. The abuser must provide evidence to convince the judge otherwise.¹

¹ 740 ILCS 21/10