Victim Services

Domestic Violence Crimes

If you are the victim of a domestic violence crime, seek help from your local law enforcement agency. The law enforcement agency (city police or county sheriff) who investigates the crime should be requested to inform the judge that a no contact order should be entered. You may also contact the court where the charge is filed to request that the prosecuting authority convey your request to the judge to have a no contact order entered as a part of the preliminary appearance or arraignment process.

Domestic Violence Protection Order

This form of protection is available to victims of domestic violence, whether or not someone was charged with a crime. If the person harassing you has committed an act of domestic violence, such as assault, threats of future harm, property destruction or other offenses, and that person is a spouse, former spouse, an adult person related by blood or marriage, persons residing together, person with a prior dating relationship, persons who have a biological or legal parent-child relationship, and person who have a child in common, whether or not they have been married or lived together, you must use this alternative.

No Contact Order in a Criminal Case

This type of protection is ordered by a judge as a part of a criminal case involving domestic violence, and also depends on your relationship to the person charged with the domestic violence crime. If you are a victim of a domestic violence crime (assault, threats of future harm, property damage or destruction, or other domestic violence crimes) you may request assistance of law enforcement and have the crime charged and a no contact order entered by the judge as a part of the criminal case.

Civil Anti-Harassment Protective Order

This is available only when the incident or incidents are not domestic violence acts. Unlawful harassment is a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person which seriously alarms, annoys or harasses such person, and which serves no legitimate or lawful purpose. In order to be eligible for a protection order there must be repeated invasions of a person’s privacy by acts and works showing a continuous pattern of harassment. Isolated single acts of harassment will not qualify a person for an anti-harassment protection order.

Additional Information and Resources

For further information, visit the Washington Department of Corrections Victim Services website.