So you get a court order called a protective order 24/7 in Maryland. When the courts are open, you can go to either the district or the circuit court, and appear before a judge that day on your own. Your spouse is not there. And you tell the judge what has happened, and the judge can grant you a seven-day temporary protective order based if they find that there are reasonable grounds to believe abuse has occurred, which is a very low-standard.

And then after seven days you return to the court with your spouse for the court to determine under a higher standard whether or not there’s justification to continue that protective order longer term. If the courts are not open, then you can go to any county commissioner in the state, day and night after the courts are at closed, and ask for what’s called an interim order which is the same procedure. If there’s reasonable grounds to believe abuse has occurred, the commissioner will enter an interim order that’s good for two days until you can then appear in court to receive that temporary order that I just mentioned.