Newton County

Orders of Protection

As of July 1, 2002, the legislature passed House Enrolled Act 1232 pertaining to Protection Orders. This new Act contains five significant concepts that have fundamentally changed Indiana Laws concerning domestic violence and protective orders.

These concepts are:

• Limiting protection from abuse orders to cases involving domestic or family violence, sexual assault and stalking.
• Consolidating all protection from abuse orders into one location in the Indiana Code (I.C. 34-26-5).
• Adopting most of the applicable provisions of the Model Code on Family Violence.

Changing terminology throughout the Indiana Code concerning protection from abuse orders, no contact orders, etc. so that the laws are consistent and less confusing to law enforcement officers and others. Such orders will be classified as one of three possible types of orders:

1. Protective Orders; which will be limited to domestic violence cases, sexual assault and stalking;
2. No Contact Orders; which will involve juvenile and criminal cases, and
3. Workplace Violence Restraining Orders; and
4. Creating the remedy of Workplace Violence Restraining Orders using California Statute as a model.