On a Tuesday afternoon in a quiet courtroom in the city’s Domestic Violence Courthouse, a woman with swelling and bruising around her eye stepped in front of Cook County Associate Judge Patrice Munzel Ball-Reed and asked for an order of protection against the man who allegedly hit her.
The woman stood without an attorney and listened as Ball-Reed rolled through a standard list of questions.
The judge asked if the man had a protection order against the woman.
“No,” the woman replied.
She asked …