Rule 220.Attorney Appearance in Civil Protection Order Actions

Civil protection order actions move quickly and often involve counsel appearing at short notice. Rule 220 adapts the appearance and withdrawal rules to them.

Appearing

An attorney intending to represent a party must file a notice of appearance before the hearing, or as soon as practicable after the first hearing at which they appear. The second alternative is the accommodation: counsel retained the morning of a hearing may appear and file afterward.

Service

Attorneys who appear will be served a copy of any filings in the case — in addition to the service of notices or orders upon the parties required by statute. Both the party and the attorney receive things, because the statutory scheme serves the party directly.

The attorney must notify the court within 14 days of any change to mailing address, phone number or email, matching Rule 219.

Withdrawing

After or with the entry of a final order or dismissal, an attorney may file a notice of withdrawal for which leave of the court is not required — unlike Rule 111, which requires a motion, a hearing within 21 days, and a 21-day stay. The withdrawal is not effective until the appeal time has expired and no proceedings are pending.

And at the conclusion of any civil protection order action, attorneys for both parties are deemed to have automatically withdrawn when the time for appeal from the final order has expired and nothing is pending. No notice is needed at all.

The reasoning tracks the proceeding: a protection order case ends at a defined point, and the danger Rule 111 guards against — a party left unrepresented mid-case without knowing it — does not arise once a final order has been entered.