Protective orders in Delaware.
Who can ask for one, what you have to show, what a judge can order, what it costs, and what happens if it is broken — quoted from Delaware’s own statutes, not summarized.
See a different stateDelaware
Delaware issues protection from abuse orders under subchapter III of chapter 10 of title 10, in the Family Court. An emergency or ex parte order can be made without the other person present, and a longer order follows a hearing. Delaware runs three durations in one statute — one year for most relief, two years for the core restraints, and a permanent no-contact order where the court finds aggravating circumstances. That ladder is set out first below.
The order after a hearing
One year, two years, or permanent
Delaware layers three different durations into one statute, and which one you get depends on which part of the order you are looking at and what the court finds.
Most relief is "effective for a fixed period of time not to exceed 1 year".
Paragraphs (a)(1) and (a)(2) are the protective heart of the order — restraining domestic violence and restraining contact. Those can run two years where the rest of the order runs one.
And above both of those:
Where the court finds aggravating circumstances, it may grant a permanent no-contact order, which can then be modified only on the motion of a party for good cause shown.
So the ladder in Delaware runs one year, two years, permanent — and the top rung is reached by a finding the court has to be asked to make. If the circumstances are serious, the aggravating-circumstances route is what you are aiming at, and it needs to be raised and evidenced.
Extending an order
An order may be extended on the motion of either party where the court finds, on the balance of probabilities, any one of the following:
— that domestic violence has occurred since the order was entered;
— that a violation of the order has occurred;
— that the respondent consents to the extension; or
— for good cause shown.
That last ground is the wide one, and it is worth knowing that it stands on its own. You do not have to prove new violence or a breach in order to ask for more time — good cause is a separate and sufficient basis.
Where an extension is sought, the hearing is scheduled within 30 days of proof of service on the respondent.
What the judge can actually order
The statutory relief
A Delaware order may restrain the respondent from committing domestic violence and from contacting you; grant you exclusive possession of the residence; order temporary custody of children; require support payments; award monetary compensation for losses; provide for the temporary seizure of firearms; and order participation in counseling programs.
Two of those repay attention. The firearms provision operates by seizure rather than by asking the respondent to hand things in on an honor system. And monetary compensation for losses covers what the abuse has cost you — medical costs, property damage, lost earnings. It is claimed, not awarded automatically.
If they break it
Criminal contempt — and the fifteen-day minimum
Delaware calls the offense criminal contempt of a domestic violence protective order. It is committed by knowingly violating or failing to obey any provision of the order — so inaction counts as much as action where the order requires something of him.
The basic offense is a class A misdemeanour. It rises to a class F felony where the contempt involves physical injury, or the use or threatened use of a deadly weapon or firearm.
And then the provision that removes a court’s discretion:
A fifteen-day minimum of incarceration applies — without suspension, probation or parole eligibility — in three situations: where the contempt caused physical injury; where it involved a deadly weapon or firearm; or where the defendant has two or more prior convictions for this offense.
The third of those is the one to keep in view. It counts prior convictions, not prior incidents. A violation that is reported and prosecuted becomes part of a record that changes what the next one costs; one that is absorbed privately does not.
The offense also covers lethal violence protective orders and sexual violence protective orders, not only domestic ones, and it applies where the violation occurs in Delaware.
Firearms: Delaware has a hard deadline, and it is short
Delaware is one of the states that does not leave firearms to federal law. Section 1045 puts relinquishment in the hands of the Family Court, and attaches two clocks that run in hours, not days.
The relinquishment order and the two clocks
Among the relief the court may grant is an order that the respondent “temporarily relinquish to a police officer or a federally-licensed firearms dealer located in Delaware the respondent’s firearms or projectile weapons.”
Relinquishment is required within 24 hours of service of the order, to a police officer or a Delaware federally-licensed dealer.
Within 48 hours, the respondent must file a certification with the court confirming either that the weapons have been relinquished, or that they have no access to any.
That second clock is the one that gives the order teeth. It converts an obligation into a paper trail, and a false certification is a separate problem for the person who files it. If you are the protected person, check the docket after 48 hours. If nothing has been filed, that is something to raise — with the court, and with the police.
Section 1045 also allows the court, on a specific showing, to order law enforcement to seize firearms rather than wait for surrender.
▸ See how this compares — all 50 states, side by side
How long a Delaware order lasts, and what makes one permanent
One year, or two for the core restraints
The ordinary term is up to one year. But the provisions that matter most — restraining the respondent from committing acts of domestic violence, and from contacting or attempting to contact you — may run up to two years.
So a Delaware order can have two different expiry dates inside it: the contact and violence restraints running to two years, other relief such as possession of the residence or temporary support running to one. Read your order for more than one date.
Extension, and the four routes to it
On motion, the court may extend or modify an order where it finds that domestic violence has occurred since the order was entered, that the order has been violated, that the respondent consents, or that there is otherwise good cause. Note the first two: a violation is not only a criminal matter, it is a ground for lengthening the order that was violated.
Permanent orders — the aggravating circumstances
Delaware allows a permanent order where aggravating circumstances are present. The statute points to: serious physical injury, the use of a weapon, prior violations of a protective order, prior convictions, and exposure of family members to harm.
Two observations. First, this is a materially easier gate than Maryland’s, which requires a five-year sentence with twelve months served. A Delaware judge can make a permanent order on the facts of the abuse itself. Second, prior violations of a protective order are on the list — which is a concrete reason to report and document every violation, however minor it seems at the time. Each one is a brick in the case for permanence.
The rest of what a Delaware judge can order
Beyond the restraints and firearms relief, § 1045 covers exclusive possession of the residence regardless of who holds title or the lease; temporary possession of personal property including vehicles, checkbooks and keys; temporary custody with any visitation arrangements; support under Title 13; monetary compensation for losses caused by the domestic violence; a bar on transferring or disposing of property; mandatory treatment or counseling; protection and control of companion animals; and — a provision too few people know exists — an order for the return of legal documents such as a passport, immigration papers and Social Security card.
That last one is there because withholding documents is a recognized method of control, particularly where immigration status is involved. If your papers are being held, ask for them back by name in your petition. The court can order it, and the catch-all — “grant any other reasonable relief necessary or appropriate” — covers what the list does not.
Does this cover me? Delaware’s definition of abuse is one of the widest anywhere
Most states define abuse as violence or the fear of it. Delaware’s § 1041 runs to eleven categories and expressly includes financial control, damage to legal documents, and harm to a pet used as leverage. If you have been told elsewhere that what is happening to you “is not abuse,” read this list before you accept that.
What counts as abuse — 10 Del. C. § 1041(1)
“Intentionally or recklessly causing or attempting to cause physical injury or a sexual offense”; and “Intentionally or recklessly placing or attempting to place another person in reasonable apprehension of physical injury or sexual offense to such person or another.”
“Intentionally or recklessly damaging, destroying, or taking the tangible property of another person, including: 1. Legal documents that are the property of another person. 2. Inflicting physical injury on any companion animal or service animal.”
“Engaging in a course of alarming or distressing conduct in a manner which is likely to cause fear or emotional distress or to provoke a violent or disorderly response, including conduct that is directed towards any companion animal or service animal.”
Trespass on property from which the person has been excluded by court order; child abuse as defined in Title 16; and “Unlawful imprisonment, kidnapping, interference with custody, and coercion.”
“Intentionally causing or attempting to cause an adult to be financially dependent by doing either or both of the following: 1. Maintaining overwhelming control over the individual’s financial resources, including withholding access to money or credit cards or forbidding attendance at school or employment without reasonable justification, and against the individual’s will. 2. Stealing or defrauding of money or assets, exploiting the victim’s resources for personal gain, or withholding physical resources such as food, clothing, necessary medications, or shelter.”
“Any other conduct which a reasonable person under the circumstances would find threatening or harmful.”
Inflicting or attempting to inflict physical injury on a companion animal, conduct likely to make you fear the animal will be injured, or cruelty to it — “when used as a method of coercion, control, punishment, or intimidation of a person who has a close bond of affection” to it.
As defined under § 787 of Title 11.
Why clause h. matters so much
Financial abuse is the form of control least often recognized and hardest to leave. Delaware names it, and names it specifically: withholding access to money or credit cards, and forbidding attendance at school or employment. If you have been stopped from working or studying, that is not merely context for your petition — in Delaware it is abuse in its own right, and it can support an order on its own.
Note too that clause c. names legal documents. Withholding a passport, immigration papers or a birth certificate is abuse under Delaware law, and § 1045 lets the court order them returned.
These clauses are recent additions — the economic abuse and human trafficking provisions came in through Delaware laws of 2023 to 2025 — which is why older Delaware guidance does not mention them.
Who is covered — § 1041(2)
Domestic violence means abuse between members of protected classes: family, as defined in § 901(12) of Title 10, “regardless, however, of state of residence of the parties, or whether parental rights have been terminated”; or:
“Former spouses; persons cohabitating together who are holding themselves out as a couple, with or without a child in common; persons living separate and apart with a child in common; or persons in a current or former substantive dating relationship.”
A substantive dating relationship excludes “a casual acquaintanceship” and “ordinary fraternization … in business or social contexts”; the factors are the length of the relationship, its type, and the frequency of interaction.
The Delaware timetable
§ 1043 — and the same-day rule
“An emergency hearing held on an ex parte basis shall be held the same day that the petition is filed or the next day that the Court is in session. All other emergency hearings shall be scheduled for an expedited hearing within 15 calendar days.”
“In any case in which an ex parte protective order has been issued, a full hearing shall be held within 15 days. The Court may extend an ex parte order as needed, but not to exceed 30 days, to effectuate service of the order or where necessary to continue protection.”
Same day or the next sitting day for the emergency hearing; 15 days to the full hearing; and the ex parte order may be stretched to a maximum of 30 days where service is proving difficult. Non-emergency petitions get a hearing within 30 days under § 1044(a).
The standard at the full hearing is preponderance of the evidence — or the respondent’s consent.
Two procedural points in your favor
§ 1043(f): where the respondent was not present, the order must be served immediately, and “A certified copy of the order shall also be given to the petitioner after the hearing, before leaving the courthouse.” Do not leave without it.
And if the respondent was in court, “the necessity for further service is waived and proof of service of the order is not necessary” — they are given a copy before leaving. Someone who attended cannot later claim they were never served.
The part that is the same in every state
An order from one state works in all of them
This is federal law and it does not change at a state line. An order issued by one state, tribe or territory must be enforced by every other as if that state had issued it. And you do not have to register it in the new state first — registration is optional, not a precondition to enforcement.
The same section also says the enforcing state must not tell the restrained person that the order has been registered there unless the protected person asks it to, and must not publish anything online that would be likely to reveal the protected person’s identity or location.
The federal firearms rule needs a hearing first
This is the single most misunderstood point in the whole subject, and it cuts against what most people assume. The federal prohibition at 18 U.S.C. s. 922(g)(8) reaches a person subject to an order only where three things are true: the order was made after a hearing of which they had actual notice and at which they had a chance to take part; it restrains them in relation to an intimate partner or that partner’s child; and it either carries a credible-threat finding or expressly forbids the use of force.
So an emergency or ex parte order does not trigger the federal prohibition on its own — there has been no hearing yet. State law may go further, and many states do, which is why the state rule is set out on this page separately. In United States v. Rahimi (2024) the Supreme Court upheld s. 922(g)(8), holding that “When an individual has been found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another, that individual may be temporarily disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment.”
This rule is narrower than it looks, and the detail matters. Who counts as an “intimate partner” is a defined term that excludes dating partners you never lived with; the two halves of the third condition are not equally settled after Rahimi; and there is a separate federal route based on convictions rather than orders, which does reach dating partners. We set all of it out, quoted from the United States Code, on one page: Guns and protection orders — the federal rule.
How does this state compare? Ten states do nothing at all about firearms on a protection order; fourteen prohibit possession but give the court no way to collect them. All fifty side by side: which states actually take the guns.
You should not be charged for this — in any state
This is settled, and it is worth knowing before you walk into a courthouse. Under 34 U.S.C. s. 10450, a state applying for STOP grant funding must certify to the Attorney General that its "laws, policies, and practices do not require" a victim to bear the costs associated with the filing, issuance, registration, modification, enforcement, dismissal, withdrawal or service of a protection order or a petition for one — nor the costs of filing criminal charges, or of warrants and witness subpoenas. A jurisdiction that does charge has its funds withheld and redistributed to the states that do not.
Every state receives STOP funding and every state has certified compliance. The practical consequence, in the words of the National Center on Protection Orders and Full Faith & Credit, is that victims "should not be required to pay such costs in any state". That covers having the papers served on the other person, which is the charge people are most often asked for.
Two honest qualifications. The provision does not stop a court charging the respondent — many states order costs against them, and that is permitted. And it is a funding condition rather than a direct federal ban, so what a clerk does on a given day can still be wrong. If you are asked to pay a fee for any of the things listed above, you can say that your state has certified under 34 U.S.C. s. 10450 that it does not charge for them. Advocates can also raise it with the National Center on Protection Orders and Full Faith & Credit on 1-800-903-0111, prompt 2.
Where this state’s own statute says so expressly, that is quoted above.
Authority: 10 Del. C. ch. 9 (the Family Court of the State of Delaware), subch. III. Definitions at s. 1041. Relief available, duration of orders, modification and termination at s. 1045. Sexual violence protective orders at 11 Del. C. s. 1271A. Checked 29 Aug 2026.
How we checked this page
Every quotation above was read in the source named in the Authority line, not taken from a summary or another website. Where a source would not open, we say so at the point we relied on something else.
On this date we also re-checked every section cited above for repeal, renumbering or amendment since 2024. That sweep is not decorative: it is what caught North Dakota’s protection order chapter being repealed and replaced, Nebraska’s moving to an entirely new title, and a dozen 2025 and 2026 amendments that most published guidance has not yet picked up.
Nothing is outstanding on the main questions for Delaware. What we cannot promise is that nothing has changed since this date. Quote the words with confidence; check a section number before you put it in a filing. And if anything here does not match what a clerk or judge tells you, the court is right and we are wrong — tell us and we will fix it.
We keep a public record of every time we have got the law wrong on these pages, what caused it, and how long it was live: where we were wrong.
If there are children
What Delaware presumes about custody, and the emergency jurisdiction that exists when someone has to leave the state.