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Ordonnance de protection is a judicial tool against intimate partner violence. It allows family court judges to order urgent measures. The article examines the logic underlying the elaboration and appropriation of the legal criteria by which the family judge must decide to issue or deny a protection order. Part 1 explores how these criteria have been legally formalized by parliamentarians and how the protection order, initially conceived as a measure to fight violence against women, ended up being considered as a family law tool. Part 2 examines how judges have been using the protection order, with a focus on their interpretation of eligibility criteria. Part 3 shows how judges decide at what point intimate partner violence becomes bad enough to apply criteria differing from those traditionally used in family law concerning the separation of married and unmarried couples.