Statistics show requests for protective orders in the commonwealth are up more than 15-fold after a new law removed obstacles for those who are not married to seek protection.
Under the old law, one could seek protection under family abuse, or if the victim was being stalked, threatened or had suffered serious injuries. The bill, sponsored by 58th District Delegate Rob Bell (R), passed in July of last year.
As a result, Virginia Supreme Court data collected for the Richmond Times Dispatch shows soaring increases in requests for protective orders in Virginia in the last 6 months of 2011, compared to that same period in 2010.
Click here for a breakdown of counties in central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley.
Bell said, "Obviously, the goal would be that if someone is feeling threatened, they get a protective order, it gives everybody a chance to cool off. It gets everybody apart and hopefully it never reaches the point we saw in the Huguely case."
Bell was inspired in part to sponsor this bill after the death of Yeardley Love. George Huguely is on trial on a first-degree murder charge in her 2010 death.
Opponents feel the new law is burdening courts with increased caseloads and paperwork.
