---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 10 AND 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PROTECTIVE ORDERS FOR VICTIMS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE."
description: "This Act permits a person who has been the victim of non-consensual sexual conduct or non-consensual sexual penetration to apply for a sexual violence protective order if the person has a reasonable fear, based on specific conduct occurring contemporaneously or subsequent to the non-consensual sexual conduct or penetration, that the perpetrator of the sexual conduct will harm the petitioner in the future. An ex parte temporary order may be issued if a petitioner proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the respondent poses an immediate and present danger of causing physical injury to the petitioner. The protective order is a civil remedy available whether or not the respondent has been charged with a crime and whether or not the petitioner reported the respondent’s conduct to law enforcement officials. The Act provides for an emergency ex parte hearing as well as a non-emergency hearing in Superior Court."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "151"
identifier: "HB 264"
citation: "Delaware HB 264 (151)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Debra Heffernan", "Krista Griffith", "Kyle Evans Gay", "Nicole Poore", "Sherry Dorsey Walker", "Valerie Longhurst"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 13
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2022-01-20"
last_action: "2022-10-10"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/2a52dc7e-9c0d-4750-8f65-664d4440e6ce"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=79113"
source_hash: "f292953dfcdb1ea51305dc330da08e29b99754ec19668de9bfed815b768f95fa"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 264 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 10 AND 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO PROTECTIVE ORDERS FOR VICTIMS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE.

This Act permits a person who has been the victim of non-consensual sexual conduct or non-consensual sexual penetration to apply for a sexual violence protective order if the person has a reasonable fear, based on specific conduct occurring contemporaneously or subsequent to the non-consensual sexual conduct or penetration, that the perpetrator of the sexual conduct will harm the petitioner in the future. An ex parte temporary order may be issued if a petitioner proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the respondent poses an immediate and present danger of causing physical injury to the petitioner. The protective order is a civil remedy available whether or not the respondent has been charged with a crime and whether or not the petitioner reported the respondent’s conduct to law enforcement officials. The Act provides for an emergency ex parte hearing as well as a non-emergency hearing in Superior Court.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=79113&legislationTypeId=6&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HS1forHB264)
2. **HA 1 to HS 1 for HB 264** (committee substitute) — [source](http://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GeneratePdfDocument?legislationId=109584&legislationTypeId=5&docTypeId=2)

## Votes

- SM — **21–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **36–1** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Debra Heffernan — primary (person)
- Krista Griffith — primary (person)
- Kyle Evans Gay — primary (person)
- Nicole Poore — primary (person)
- Sherry Dorsey Walker — primary (person)
- Valerie Longhurst — primary (person)
- Franklin D. Cooke — cosponsor (person)
- John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
- Kimberly Williams — cosponsor (person)
- Melissa Minor-Brown — cosponsor (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)
- Stephanie L. Hansen — cosponsor (person)
- William Bush — cosponsor (person)
- William J. Carson — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2022-01-20** Adopted in lieu of the original bill HB 264, and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-01-26** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 2 Favorable, 4 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-01-27** Assigned to Appropriations Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-05-19** Reported Out of Committee (Appropriations) in House with 5 Favorable `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-06-02** Amendment HA 1 to HS 1 - Introduced and Placed With Bill `amendment-introduction`
- **2022-06-07** Amendment HA 1 to HS 1 - Passed In House by Voice Vote `amendment-passage`
- **2022-06-07** Passed By House. Votes: 36 YES 1 NO 4 ABSENT `passage`
- **2022-06-07** Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-15** Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in Senate with 1 Favorable, 3 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-06-15** Assigned to Finance Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-22** Reported Out of Committee (Finance) in Senate with 1 Favorable, 3 On Its Merits `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-06-23** Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES `passage`
- **2022-10-10** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/2a52dc7e-9c0d-4750-8f65-664d4440e6ce`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).