New York State Sheriffs' Institute

The period of time immediately following service of an Order of Protection is recognized as a particularly crucial period for a victim. Abusers are often more violent during this period of separation.

If a victim chooses to register for this service, they will be notified that the Order of Protection has been served. However, the decision to take advantage of this service is the victim’s choice. A victim can only be notified once they register for the service.

If the victim chooses to register for this service, the notification can provide an opportunity for the victim to be proactive and take appropriate precautions during this precarious time, allowing the victim to implement a Personal Safety Plan for themselves and any impacted children or other family members.

What Steps are involved in the success of this Notification System?

Step 1: Court
The Court issues the Order of Protection and provides a copy to the victim/protected party.[1] Court personnel enter the Order of Protection into the Court
[1] For purposes of this document and to avoid any confusion, we refer to the person filing for the Order of Protection as the Protected Party. However once filed in Family Court, court documents will refer to the victim as the Petitioner.  In Criminal Court, court documents will refer to the victim as the Complainant and the “Against Party” as the defendant.

• System, which updates the NYS Order of Protection Registry at the New York State eJustice/Integrated Justice Portal.
• NYS then updates the federal NCIC Protective Order File.
• The court forwards a copy of the Order of Protection to law enforcement for service or, in some cases, the court serves the Order of Protection itself in court.

Step 2: Registration

• The victim learns about the availability of the Order of Protection Notification System. This may take place at court, via an advocate or other means.

Step 3: Law Enforcement

• Serves the Order of Protection.
• Completes the Order of Protection Service Screen on the eJusticeNY/Integrated Justice Portal immediately after service.

Step 4: The Victim

• The victim is notified that the Order of Protection has been served.
• Carries out their personal Safety Plan to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Please note that the notification is dependent on the court initially entering the Order of Protection into the court system AND, once the Order is served, either the court or law enforcement, must enter the fact that the Order of Protection has been served as soon as possible after service of the Order. The entry that the Order has been served triggers the Order of Protection Notification System to generate a notification to registered users. It is possible that you may be notified twice that the Order has been served:

•  When the law enforcement agency completes the Order of Protection Service Screen on the eJusticeNY/Integrated Justice Portal immediately after service.
• Once the court receives an Affadavit of Service from the serving law enforcement agency and enters the Order as served into the court system.

There is a thirty (30) day registration window. You must register for this service within thirty (30) days of the Order of Protection being issued by the Court. You are encouraged to register as soon as possible after the Court issues the Order of Protection.

Your registration will remain active for thirty-one (31) days. At day 25, you will begin to receive notifications alerting you that your registration is about to expire and asking if you would like to renew your subscription for an additional thirty-one (31) days.

You can continue to renew your registration as long as the Order of Protection is active. If you do not respond to the first “about to expire” notification, you will continue to receive that message for another five (5) days. At that time, if you do not renew, your registration will expire.

You will need to confirm that you have entered the Docket Number correctly. A very common error in entering the Docket Number is mistaking the letter O for the number 0. The first one or two characters of the Docket Number (the one or two characters in front of the first dash), are ALWAYS letters. Therefore, when you see O or OO, they are NOT zeros.

Please be sure to enter the Docket Number exactly as it appears on the actual Order of Protection. The field is edited to help you make this entry correctly. The proper format is a one or two-digit capital letter, a dash (-), a five-digit number, a dash (-), followed by a two-digit number usually representing the year of the filing. There are no spaces in the Docket No. It should look like this: B-12345-20 or BB-12345-20.

If your Order of Protection has been modified or extended by the court, they may have added some characters to the end of your original Docket No. Generally, that new Docket No. will be your original Docket No. followed by a forward slash / followed by two numbers and one or two capital letters e.g. 34A or 34AA. So, in those cases where the Order of Protection was modified or extended, the Docket No. may look similar one of the four numbers docket formats: B-12345-18/34A, B-12345-18/34AA, BB-12345-18/34A or BB-12345-18/34AA.

In the case where the Order of Protection is extended and given a new Docket or Order of Protection number, you should re-register for notification.

You will need to confirm that you have entered the Order No. correctly. Please be sure to enter it exactly as it appears on the actual Order of Protection. The proper format is: a four-digit year e.g. 2018 followed by a dash – followed by a six-digit number 123456. There are no spaces in the Order No. The Order No. should look like this: 2018-123456.

Once you register to receive Order of Protection Notifications, there are three types of notification that you may receive:

1. A notification that the Order has been Advised or Served.
2. A notification that the Order has been Cancelled or Vacated by the Court.
3. A notification that your subscription to be notified is About to Expire. You will be allowed to renew your registration at that time. This does not renew your order, but instead just renews your subscription to the notification system.

The “Registry,” also known as the NYS Family Protection Registry, was created as part of the Family Protection and Domestic Violence Intervention Act of 1994. It became operational in October of 1995. The Registry was developed by the NYS Unified Court System in collaboration with the New York State Police and is available to criminal justice users through the eJusticeNY portal. The Registry is a historical record; Orders of Protection remain in the database even after they expire.