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Legal Information: Delaware

Restraining Orders

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Updated: 
March 26, 2024

Is there a time limit for filing?

You must file your petition within one year of the most recent date that the abuser said or did something that made you reasonably fear that s/he will harm you in the future. However, there are a few exceptions that will pause this time period temporarily if they happened after the sexual violence took place. The exceptions are:

  • if the abuser was incarcerated;
  • if the abuser lived more than 100 miles from your home; or
  • if the abuser was under a different no contact order that kept him/her away from you.1

If one of those three things happened, the one year period will be paused for however long the situation went on. For example, if the abuser committed sexual violence on January 1, 2024 and then was incarcerated for 15 days in February 2024, the deadline for filing would be January 15, 2025 instead of December 31, 2024.

1 10 Del.C. § 7203(k)

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