English
EspañolStep 1: Go to court and request a petition.
Go to the courthouse in your county or the county where the abuser lives. Find the office of the Clerk of Court. Tell them that you are there to file a petition for a protective order. You can find a court near you by going to our IA Courthouse Locations page. You can also find links to petitions online by going to our IA Download Court Forms page.
Step 2: Fill out the petition.
Carefully fill out the petition. It is an important legal document. Read it carefully and ask questions if you don’t understand something. When you fill out the forms, you will be called the “plaintiff” and the abuser will be called the “defendant.” When you write about the violent acts, use descriptive language to say what the abuser did to you. Here are just some examples of descriptive words: slap, hit, grab, choke, threaten, etc. Be as specific as you can. Include details about when and where the abuse happened, the fear or pain you felt, and any injuries you had. A domestic violence organization may be able to provide you with help filling out the forms. See our IA Places that Help page for the location of an organization near you.
Do not sign the form when you are finished. It must be signed in front of a notary public. There should be a notary public in the courthouse. Be sure to bring some form of identification, like your driver’s license or another ID that has your picture.
Step 3: A judge will review your petition.
After you finish filling out your petition, bring it to the court clerk. The clerk will forward it to a judge. The judge may wish to ask you questions as s/he reviews your petition. This is called an ex parte hearing. Ex parte means the abuser is not there and does not know about the order in advance.
The judge will decide whether or not to issue the temporary order, and if you seek a permanent order the judge will set a date for a hearing. You will be given papers that state the time and date of your hearing for a permanent order.
If the judge issues you a temporary order, the sheriff for the county in which it was issued will also get a copy. This is also true of permanent and emergency orders.1 Law enforcement agencies anywhere in the state can find out about your order by checking a computerized registry of orders.
1 Iowa Code § 236.5(7), (8)
Step 4: Service of process
A protective order is not valid until it is served. Generally, a sheriff will try to serve the abuser with a notice of hearing and the temporary protective order. However, if the abuser comes into contact with law enforcement for any reason before the order is served, they can “serve” the abuser with a short-form notification instead of the order.1 A short-form notification would, among other things, notify the abuser of the prohibited behavior, the risk of arrest for a violation, and put the obligation on the abuser to get a full copy of the protective order from court. The sheriff/officer can hold the abuser long enough to complete service of the short-form notification and then the sheriff/officer is supposed to file proof of service in court.2
You can ask the court clerk if the court will send copies of the order and notice of hearing to the police or sheriff or if you have to bring the papers to law enforcement. Do not serve the abuser with the papers yourself.
To be alerted when service of your protective order is complete, you can register with the automatic protective order victim notification system.3 The court clerk or a local victim service program may be able to help you with the registration.
You can find more information about service of process in our Preparing for Court – By Yourself section, in the question called What is service of process and how do I accomplish it?
1 Iowa Code §§ 236.3(3)(b); 664A.4A(1), (2)
2 Iowa Code § 664A.4A(3), (4)
3 Iowa Code § 915.52(1), (2), (4)
Step 5: The hearing
You must go to the hearing. If you do not go to the hearing, your temporary order will expire and you will have to start the process over.
If the abuser does not show up for the hearing, the judge may still grant you a protective order, or the judge may order a new hearing date.
As the plaintiff requesting the protective order, you must prove that the abuser committed at least one act of domestic abuse against you. Alternatively, the abuser can agree to consent to the order without admitting to committing domestic abuse.1
You can learn more about the court system in our Preparing for Court – By Yourself section. See our At the Hearing section for ways you can show the judge that you were abused.
1 Iowa Code § 236.5(1)
