Court Advocacy

A caring person on your side to provide support, useful information about what to expect in court and what to say is what court advocacy offers. The Battered Women's Shelter provides court advocacy to both Summit and Medina counties. Most of the time women going to court don't know they are going to have an advocate with them until they get there. Advocates are notified by the courts when there are domestic violence cases and the advocates show up and help whoever needs it. When in court the advocates offer the client help in obtaining a protection order. There are four different types of protection orders: TPO's (temporary protection orders), CPO's (civil protection orders), SCPO's (stalking civil protection orders) and SSOOPO's (stalking sexually oriented offense protection orders). These protection orders are not restraining orders so violating them is a crime!

A temporary protection order can only be placed with a domestic violence arrest against the batterer. TPO's are usually placed so that the victim is safe and homicides don't occur. However, when the batterer is not allowed to go within 500 feet of their home, they can get very dangerous because all their control has been taken away. TPO's only last until the end of the case, which can be a very short period of time.

With a civil protection order you don't need an arrest to get one placed. All you need is a recent incident of one of the following: a threat, physical harm, stalking etc. and that recent incident can go five years back. To get a CPO placed it can take up to 1-3hr. of paperwork mainly because the victim has to write out what happened in the "domestic acts of violence" against them. The victim then has to go to court and testify their most recent incident and why they want the protection order. With CPO's only one side of the story is heard. The magistrate makes his decision and let's them know. The CPO keeps the batterer 500 yards away from the victim at all times. (If they end up at the same store the batterer has to be the one to leave.) Following that a full hearing is held 7-10 days later and both parties are required to be there. They discuss custody issues and finally a decision is made whether or not to keep the order in place. The judge gets to decide how long the protection order will be in place for anywhere from 1-5 years.

Stalking civil protection orders have the same paperwork and process as TPO's. To obtain one though, you cannot have had a child with the stalker ever or lived with the stalker in the last five years. The story of the victim being stalked has to meet the definition of menacing by stalking which is engaging in a pattern of conduct that the stalker knows will cause harm to the victim. There has to be two incidents closely related in time like physical harm or attempted physical harm. There also has to be noted mental distress by the victim like things that they've changed because of the stalker. For example driving a different way home or to work. SCPO's are normally granted for 1year but can be up to 5years.

Sexually stalking oriented offense protection orders are just like SCPO's except there has to be one rape and stalking. Stalking can be various things from sending a pizza to vandalizing the victim's property. Sending a pizza implies that they know the victim is home and also gives them a financial burden of paying for it.

A few laws and programs to help keep victims safe include the following: VAWA, Ohio Victime Compensation Program and V.I.N.E. VAWA is the violence against women act that states if you move from state to state all of your protection orders will go with you. The Ohio Victim Compensation Program offers free attorneys, counseling, paid medical expenses, paid time missed form work and childcare. However, to be eligible for this program you need to have filed a police report within 72hr. of the domestic violence act and not have any felonious conduct on your record, like illegal drugs or committed felonies. V.I.N.E. stands for victim information notification everyday. This lets the victim know when their batterer is getting transfered to another prison or getting released out of prison.

The photograph was taken from www.ywcaknox.com.