SB2683 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB103 36494 LNS 66600 b

103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2023 and 2024
SB2683

Introduced 1/10/2024, by Sen. Steve Stadelman

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

740 ILCS 21/10
740 ILCS 21/80

Amends the Stalking No Contact Order Act. Defines a course of conduct to include using any electronic tracking system or acquiring tracking information to determine a targeted person's location, moment, or travel patterns. Requires an order under this Act to prohibit this course of conduct.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning civil law.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Stalking No Contact Order Act is amended by changing Sections 10 and 80 as follows:

(740 ILCS 21/10)

Sec. 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this Act:

"Course of conduct" means 2 or more acts, including but not limited to acts in which a respondent directly, indirectly, or through third parties, by any action, method, device, or means follows, monitors, observes, surveils, or threatens a person, workplace, school, or place of worship, engages in other contact, or interferes with or damages a person's property or pet. A course of conduct may include using any electronic tracking system or acquiring tracking information to determine the targeted person's location, movement, or travel patterns. A course of conduct may also include contact via electronic communications. The incarceration of a person in a penal institution who commits the course of conduct is not a bar to prosecution under this Section.

"Emotional distress" means significant mental suffering, anxiety or alarm.

"Contact" includes any contact with the victim, that is initiated or continued without the victim's consent, or that is in disregard of the victim's expressed desire that the contact be avoided or discontinued, including but not limited to being in the physical presence of the victim; appearing within the sight of the victim; approaching or confronting the victim in a public place or on private property; appearing at the workplace or residence of the victim; entering onto or remaining on property owned, leased, or occupied by the victim; placing an object on, or delivering an object to, property owned, leased, or occupied by the victim; electronic communication as defined in Section 26.5-0.1 of the Criminal Code of 2012; and appearing at the prohibited workplace, school, or place of worship.

"Petitioner" means any named petitioner for the stalking no contact order or any named victim of stalking on whose behalf the petition is brought. "Petitioner" includes an authorized agent of a place of employment, an authorized agent of a place of worship, or an authorized agent of a school.

"Reasonable person" means a person in the petitioner's circumstances with the petitioner's knowledge of the respondent and the respondent's prior acts.

"Stalking" means engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person, and he or she knows or should know that this course of conduct would cause a reasonable person to fear for his or her safety, the safety of a workplace, school, or place of worship, or the safety of a third person or suffer emotional distress. Stalking does not include an exercise of the right to free speech or assembly that is otherwise lawful or picketing occurring at the workplace that is otherwise lawful and arises out of a bona fide labor dispute, including any controversy concerning wages, salaries, hours, working conditions or benefits, including health and welfare, sick leave, insurance, and pension or retirement provisions, the making or maintaining of collective bargaining agreements, and the terms to be included in those agreements.

"Stalking no contact order" means an emergency order or plenary order granted under this Act, which includes a remedy authorized by Section 80 of this Act.

(Source: P.A. 102-220, eff. 1-1-22.)

(740 ILCS 21/80)

Sec. 80. Stalking no contact orders; remedies.

(a) If the court finds that the petitioner has been a victim of stalking, a stalking no contact order shall issue; provided that the petitioner must also satisfy the requirements of Section 95 on emergency orders or Section 100 on plenary orders. The petitioner shall not be denied a stalking no contact order because the petitioner or the respondent is a minor. The court, when determining whether or not to issue a stalking no contact order, may not require physical injury on the person of the petitioner. Modification and extension of prior stalking no contact orders shall be in accordance with this Act.

(b) A stalking no contact order shall order one or more of the following:

(1) prohibit the respondent from threatening to commit or committing stalking;

(2) order the respondent not to have any contact with the petitioner or a third person specifically named by the court;

(3) prohibit the respondent from knowingly coming within, or knowingly remaining within a specified distance of the petitioner or the petitioner's residence, school, daycare, or place of employment, or any specified place frequented by the petitioner; however, the court may order the respondent to stay away from the respondent's own residence, school, or place of employment only if the respondent has been provided actual notice of the opportunity to appear and be heard on the petition;

(4) prohibit the respondent from possessing a Firearm Owners Identification Card, or possessing or buying firearms; and

(5) prohibit the respondent from using any electronic tracking system or acquiring tracking information to determine the petitioner's location, movement, or travel pattern; and

(6) (5) order other injunctive relief the court determines to be necessary to protect the petitioner or third party specifically named by the court.

(b-5) When the petitioner and the respondent attend the same public, private, or non-public elementary, middle, or high school, the court when issuing a stalking no contact order and providing relief shall consider the severity of the act, any continuing physical danger or emotional distress to the petitioner, the educational rights guaranteed to the petitioner and respondent under federal and State law, the availability of a transfer of the respondent to another school, a change of placement or a change of program of the respondent, the expense, difficulty, and educational disruption that would be caused by a transfer of the respondent to another school, and any other relevant facts of the case. The court may order that the respondent not attend the public, private, or non-public elementary, middle, or high school attended by the petitioner, order that the respondent accept a change of placement or program, as determined by the school district or private or non-public school, or place restrictions on the respondent's movements within the school attended by the petitioner. The respondent bears the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that a transfer, change of placement, or change of program of the respondent is not available. The respondent also bears the burden of production with respect to the expense, difficulty, and educational disruption that would be caused by a transfer of the respondent to another school. A transfer, change of placement, or change of program is not unavailable to the respondent solely on the ground that the respondent does not agree with the school district's or private or non-public school's transfer, change of placement, or change of program or solely on the ground that the respondent fails or refuses to consent to or otherwise does not take an action required to effectuate a transfer, change of placement, or change of program. When a court orders a respondent to stay away from the public, private, or non-public school attended by the petitioner and the respondent requests a transfer to another attendance center within the respondent's school district or private or non-public school, the school district or private or non-public school shall have sole discretion to determine the attendance center to which the respondent is transferred. In the event the court order results in a transfer of the minor respondent to another attendance center, a change in the respondent's placement, or a change of the respondent's program, the parents, guardian, or legal custodian of the respondent is responsible for transportation and other costs associated with the transfer or change.

(b-6) The court may order the parents, guardian, or legal custodian of a minor respondent to take certain actions or to refrain from taking certain actions to ensure that the respondent complies with the order. In the event the court orders a transfer of the respondent to another school, the parents, guardian, or legal custodian of the respondent are responsible for transportation and other costs associated with the change of school by the respondent.

(b-7) The court shall not hold a school district or private or non-public school or any of its employees in civil or criminal contempt unless the school district or private or non-public school has been allowed to intervene.

(b-8) The court may hold the parents, guardian, or legal custodian of a minor respondent in civil or criminal contempt for a violation of any provision of any order entered under this Act for conduct of the minor respondent in violation of this Act if the parents, guardian, or legal custodian directed, encouraged, or assisted the respondent minor in such conduct.

(c) The court may award the petitioner costs and attorneys fees if a stalking no contact order is granted.

(d) Monetary damages are not recoverable as a remedy.

(e) If the stalking no contact order prohibits the respondent from possessing a Firearm Owner's Identification Card, or possessing or buying firearms; the court shall confiscate the respondent's Firearm Owner's Identification Card and immediately return the card to the Illinois State Police Firearm Owner's Identification Card Office.

(Source: P.A. 102-538, eff. 8-20-21.)