9 Intake Screening Questions for Domestic Violence Protective Order Cases
Domestic violence protective order calls are among the highest-stakes intakes a family law firm handles. The caller may be in danger. The timeline may be measured in hours, not days. And a poorly structured first call can result in a missed filing deadline, an ethical conflict, or a caller who hangs up without getting the help they need.
A structured screening process protects the caller, protects the firm, and gives the attorney everything needed to move a file forward fast. These nine questions are the framework that makes that possible.
Quick answer: The nine intake screening questions every firm should ask on a domestic violence protective order call are:
- Is the caller currently safe?
- What is the relationship with the respondent?
- Are any court orders already in place?
- Have any police reports or incident reports been filed?
- Are children involved or at risk?
- What evidence does the caller have?
- What county and court would handle the filing?
- Is there a pending court date that creates a deadline?
- Has a conflict check been run against the respondent?
1. Immediate Physical Safety Status of the Caller
Asking about immediate physical safety before any other question is the most important step in a domestic violence protective order intake call.
Before a single case-qualification question is asked, intake staff need to know whether the caller is safe right now. A caller who is in the same building as the respondent, or who just left a dangerous situation, is not in a position to answer intake questions about evidence or filing deadlines. They need a safety referral first.
This is not a legal question. It is a human one. Intake staff should be trained to recognize signs of distress on a call, including whispered responses, background noise, or a caller who abruptly ends the conversation, and to respond with a referral to the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233, available 24 hours a day) or local emergency services before proceeding.
Once the caller confirms they are currently safe, the legal intake can begin.
Takeaway: Train intake staff to ask "Are you safe right now?" as the first words out of their mouth on any call flagged as a domestic violence inquiry. It is not a formality. It determines whether the rest of the call can happen at all.
2. Relationship and History with the Respondent
The legal definition of who qualifies as a protected person under a domestic violence statute depends entirely on the relationship between the parties. Most states cover spouses, former spouses, cohabitants, dating partners, and family members, but the precise definitions vary by state statute.
A caller who is a neighbor, a coworker, or a former acquaintance may not qualify for a domestic violence protective order under the relevant statute. They may qualify for a civil harassment restraining order instead, which is a different petition, filed in a different court, with different evidentiary standards.
Intake staff do not need to make that legal determination. But they do need to collect the relationship category accurately, because the attorney will use it to identify which petition applies. Capturing whether the parties were ever married, ever lived together, have a child in common, or are in a current or former dating relationship gives the attorney what they need to pick the right form and court on the first review.
Takeaway: Ask specifically about cohabitation, marriage, children in common, and the dating history. "We were in a relationship" is not enough detail. "We lived together for two years and we share a child" tells the attorney exactly what they are working with.
3. Any Existing Court Orders Already in Place
Prior police reports and documented incidents are among the strongest categories of corroborating evidence in protective order cases.
Before drafting a new petition, the attorney needs to know whether any civil or criminal order involving these two parties is already active. That includes prior protective orders, civil restraining orders, criminal no-contact orders issued as a condition of bail or probation, and any order issued in a family court proceeding.
An active order changes what the firm is filing. If a criminal no-contact order is already in place and the respondent has violated it, that violation may be the most urgent fact in the file. If a prior protective order expired or was dismissed, the attorney needs to understand why before drafting the new petition's declaration.
Intake staff should ask: "Do you know of any court orders that are currently in place between you and this person?" and follow up with "Has any prior protective order or restraining order ever been filed in this situation?"
Takeaway: Never assume there are no prior orders. An expired or violated order is often the most compelling background fact in a new petition, and missing it on intake means the attorney goes into the first consult without the full picture.
4. Prior Police Reports or Documented Incidents
Prior police reports and documented incidents are among the strongest categories of corroborating evidence in protective order cases.
A protective order petition typically requires a declaration describing the specific incidents that justify the request. Corroborating records, including police reports, incident numbers, emergency dispatch logs, and records of prior arrests, strengthen that declaration and give the judge an independent basis for the petitioner's account.
Intake staff should ask whether any reports were ever filed, even in situations where no arrest was made. Many callers assume that because nothing "happened" legally, the report does not count. It does. A report filed and closed with no arrest still creates a documented record of a call for service at a specific address on a specific date.
Callers should also be asked whether there were incidents they did not report to police at the time but that they documented in other ways, such as medical visits, communications with a school counselor, or messages sent to a friend describing the incident.
Takeaway: Ask "Did you ever call the police, even if no one was arrested?" and "Did you ever go to urgent care or an emergency room because of something this person did?" Both create documented records the attorney can reference.
5. Whether Children Are Involved or at Risk
When children are present in the home or share custody with the respondent, the intake screening must flag that immediately, because it affects both the petition scope and the urgency of filing.
When children live in the home with both parties, or when the respondent has custody or visitation rights over a child the caller shares with them, the protective order petition becomes more complex. Most states allow a protective order to include custody and visitation provisions, but those provisions often require a separate section of the petition or must be coordinated with an active family court case.
A protective order that covers the caller but does not address the children leaves an obvious gap: the respondent may still have court-ordered access to the children, which gives them a mechanism to make contact with the caller.
Intake staff should ask: "Are there any children living in your home?" and "Do you share children with this person?" If yes, the intake record must flag that the petition will need to address custody and visitation, and the attorney should be notified before the first consult rather than discovering it in the room.
Takeaway: A domestic violence protective order involving shared children is a family law matter and a custody matter at the same time. Flag it at intake so the attorney walks into the consult prepared to address both.
6. Available Evidence Such as Texts, Photos, or Messages
Available evidence, including text messages, voicemails, photos of injuries, and screenshots of social media threats, can strengthen the affidavit the attorney drafts in support of the petition.
The strength of a protective order petition rests on the declaration the petitioner signs. That declaration is more persuasive when it is corroborated by physical or digital evidence. Intake is the right moment to inventory what the caller already has.
Common evidence categories include: text messages or messaging app conversations containing threats or abusive language; voicemails; photographs of injuries; screenshots of social media posts or direct messages; medical records or discharge summaries from emergency visits; communications between the parties about incidents; and witness contact information.
Intake staff do not need to evaluate the strength of the evidence. They need to ask whether it exists and make a note in the CRM record so the attorney can request it before the consult. A caller who is asked to gather their texts before the appointment arrives prepared instead of arriving empty-handed.
Takeaway: Ask "Do you have any texts, photos, voicemails, or screenshots related to what happened?" and instruct the caller to save or screenshot anything relevant before the consult. Evidence that disappears before the attorney sees it is evidence that cannot be used.
7. County and Jurisdiction for Filing Requirements
Intake staff must capture the county and jurisdiction on the first call because protective order filing procedures and emergency petition rules vary by court.
Protective order procedures are not uniform. The forms, fee structures, emergency petition processes, and self-help resources differ by state and, within states, by county. In California, for example, a domestic violence restraining order (DVRO) is filed in the superior court of the county where the petitioner lives, where the respondent lives, or where the abuse occurred, but local court rules and form availability vary across those courts.
Filing in the wrong court is a delay the firm cannot afford when the caller needs an emergency temporary order. Intake staff should capture the caller's county of residence and, separately, the county where most of the incidents occurred. If those are different, the attorney decides which venue is preferable.
This question also surfaces practical logistics: the attorney needs to know which court's forms to use, whether that court offers same-day emergency petition hearings, and whether the firm has staff familiar with that court's filing process.
Takeaway: Capture both the caller's current county of residence and the county where the incidents occurred. They are often the same, but when they are different, that information changes the filing strategy.
8. Urgency of the Timeline Before the Next Court Date
Speed matters in protective order intakes: an emergency temporary restraining order can often be requested the same day, but only if the firm moves the file forward quickly.
A protective order intake is time-sensitive in a way that a routine family law consult is not. An emergency temporary protective order, sometimes called a TEPO or ex parte TRO depending on jurisdiction, can often be requested the same day if the firm moves quickly. But the window to do that is narrow: most courts have a cutoff time for same-day ex parte filings.
Beyond the immediate emergency, other deadlines may be lurking in the file. An upcoming custody hearing, a pending criminal proceeding involving the respondent, or a recently served divorce petition all create dates that the protective order filing must work around or ahead of.
Intake staff should ask: "Is there any court date coming up involving you or this person?" and "Do you feel you are in immediate danger right now or in the coming days?" The answers determine whether the file is triaged as urgent and moved to an attorney before the end of the same business day.
Takeaway: Treat protective order intakes as time-sensitive by default. If there is any pending court date or stated safety concern, the file should reach an attorney the same day, not the next morning.
9. Conflict Check Against the Opposing Party
A conflict check against the respondent's name must be completed before intake staff collect sensitive facts about the caller's situation. If the firm has represented the respondent in any prior matter, including an unrelated case, collecting detailed information about the respondent's conduct creates a risk of an ethical violation before the firm has agreed to take the case.
Most CRM systems can run a conflict check against a name and contact record. The respondent's full name, any known aliases, and any business entities the respondent is associated with should all be checked. This takes two minutes if the system is built for it.
The sequence matters. Ask for the respondent's name early in the call, run the check immediately, and do not proceed to collect detailed facts until the check comes back clean. If there is a potential conflict, the call should be paused and escalated to a partner before proceeding.
Takeaway: Conflict checks on the opposing party are not optional and they cannot happen at the end of the intake. Build the check into the CRM workflow so it runs automatically as soon as the respondent's name is entered. That is a systems problem, not a training problem.
Building the System Behind the Questions
A structured question list is only as good as the system that captures and routes the answers. For domestic violence protective order intakes, that means a CRM record that is created on the first call, a flag for urgency, a conflict-check trigger built into the intake workflow, and a routing rule that sends flagged files to an attorney before the end of the business day.
It also means after-hours coverage. Protective order calls do not arrive only between 9 and 5. A caller who reaches a voicemail on a Friday night and cannot get anyone on the phone until Monday has lost the window for a same-day emergency filing. The firms that convert these cases at the highest rate have intake coverage that matches when callers actually call.
If the intake system at your firm does not capture all nine of these data points in a structured CRM record and route urgent files automatically, that is the place to start. The questions themselves are the easy part. The infrastructure behind them is what determines whether the attorney walks into the consult prepared or catches up in real time.
RGDM builds the intake and CRM systems that make this process run without gaps. To see how the full pipeline works for a family law practice, book a free Case Acquisition Review.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should intake staff ask on a protective order call?
Intake staff should ask nine questions in a structured sequence: whether the caller is currently safe; the nature of the relationship with the respondent; whether any court orders are already in place; whether police reports have been filed; whether children are involved; what evidence the caller has; what county the case would be filed in; whether any court dates are pending; and whether a conflict check against the respondent has been completed. The conflict check should happen before staff collect detailed facts.
How do firms screen for safety risk during family law intake?
Safety screening on a family law intake call begins with a direct question: "Are you safe right now?" Intake staff should be trained to recognize signs of distress, to provide the National Domestic Violence Hotline number (1-800-799-7233) when appropriate, and to treat any caller who expresses immediate safety concerns as a priority before proceeding to legal qualification questions.
What documentation helps a protective order case?
The most useful documentation for a protective order case includes police reports and incident numbers, photographs of injuries, text messages or messaging app conversations containing threats or abusive language, voicemails, screenshots of social media threats or posts, medical records from emergency or urgent care visits, and witness contact information. Intake staff should ask callers to identify and preserve this documentation before the first attorney consult.
How quickly should protective order intakes be processed?
Protective order intakes should be treated as time-sensitive by default. Emergency temporary protective orders can often be filed the same day in many jurisdictions, but only if the file reaches an attorney before the court's ex parte filing cutoff. Any intake where the caller expresses a current safety concern or has a pending court date should be escalated to an attorney the same day it arrives.
Does a protective order intake need a conflict check?
Yes. A conflict check against the respondent's name must be completed before intake staff collect detailed facts about the respondent's conduct. If the firm has previously represented the respondent in any matter, collecting the caller's account before identifying that conflict creates a risk of an ethical violation. The conflict check should be built into the CRM workflow and triggered as soon as the respondent's name is entered.
What happens if children are mentioned during a protective order intake?
When children are identified during intake, the record must be flagged immediately. A protective order petition that involves children shared with the respondent may need to include custody and visitation provisions, which changes the form, the court section, and the scope of the filing. The attorney should be aware of the children's involvement before the consult, not during it.
Should protective order calls be handled differently after hours?
Yes. After-hours coverage for protective order calls is operationally important because the window for a same-day emergency filing closes at a specific time each court day. A caller who cannot reach a live intake person on a Friday evening and waits until Monday has likely lost the opportunity for a same-day emergency petition. Firms that handle these cases should have intake coverage or an answering protocol that routes protective order calls to a live person outside of business hours.
What is the right CRM record structure for a protective order intake?
A protective order intake record should include: the caller's contact information; the respondent's full name and any aliases (for the conflict check); the relationship category; a safety flag; existing order status; incident history and report numbers; whether children are involved; evidence inventory; county and court; pending court dates; urgency level; and the time the call was received. Each of these fields should map to a structured input in the CRM, not a free-text notes field, so the attorney can review a clean summary rather than a wall of text.
Can the same intake questions be used for civil harassment restraining orders?
Most of the questions overlap, but the relationship question is the key differentiator. Civil harassment restraining orders cover people who do not qualify under the domestic violence statute: neighbors, coworkers, acquaintances, and others with no intimate or family relationship. If the intake reveals no qualifying domestic relationship, the intake staff should note that the correct petition may be a civil harassment restraining order rather than a domestic violence protective order, and flag it for the attorney to confirm on the consult.