1. Protection Orders

Court orders for family violence

Protection Orders

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Overview

The Family Court can make a Protection Order to help protect someone from family violence. If you apply for a Protection Order, you are the applicant. The person named as being harmful is the respondent.

If a criminal case involves family violence, a judge can make a Protection Order to help keep someone safe from family violence, even if they have not applied for the order.

Who is included in a Protection Order

The Protection Order protects you, your children, and anyone else named on the order - such as a new partner. These are the ‘protected people’.

A child of the applicant includes:

  • any children not born yet
  • children who live with the applicant for any time - if a child hasn’t lived with the applicant at any time, the judge can decide that the order should also protect them
  • children who turn 18 while the Protection Order is in place and still live with the applicant - once they turn 18, if they don’t want to be protected by the order, either they or the applicant will need to ask the court to change the order.

The order helps protect the protected people from the respondent. It can also help protect the protected people from associates of the respondent. The order lists the terms and conditions the respondent and associates must follow.

Who you can apply for an order against

You can apply for a Protection Order against someone who is using family violence against you. This means you need to be in a family or close personal relationship with that person. This can include:

  • a partner or spouse
  • a family member
  • a flatmate
  • someone you share a household with
  • a carer or caregiver
  • anyone you have a close personal relationship with.

A Restraining Order is different to a Protection Order. You can apply for a Restraining Order if you’ve never been in a close personal relationship with the person who’s being harmful.

Restraining Orders

Temporary Protection Order

If you need immediate protection, you can apply for a Temporary Protection Order to be made urgently without notifying the respondent first. This is called a ‘without notice’ application. If a judge agrees that you need this, a Temporary Protection Order will be made immediately.

Apply for a Protection Order

If you don’t need a Protection Order urgently, you still apply the same way but don’t tick the ‘without notice’ box on the application form.

Final Protection Order

The respondent has three months to respond if a Temporary Protection Order is in place. If they don’t file a response within this time, your Temporary Protection Order automatically becomes a Final Protection Order.

If you don’t have a Temporary Protection Order or the respondent files a response

If the respondent wants to have their views heard or defend themselves against the application, they’ll need to file a response within the timeframe listed on the ‘Notice of Hearing’. Both you and the respondent will have to attend the court hearing. After considering all the evidence at the hearing, the judge will decide whether to grant a Final Protection Order.

A Final Protection Order will stay in place until the court changes or cancels it. A Protection Order will not be cancelled unless a judge believes that the respondent is no longer a risk to the applicant and any other people protected by the order.

Change a Protection Order

Terms or conditions of a Protection Order

The Protection Order lists terms or conditions the respondent must follow — such as they must stop their harmful behaviour.

A Protection Order has three main conditions

1

No family violence

The respondent must not use any form of family violence. This includes:

  • physical, sexual, psychological, or financial abuse 
  • threats to harm
  • damage or threats to damage property or hurt pets that belongs to the protected person
  • encouraging anyone else to abuse or threaten the protected person.

Understand family violence

2

No contact

The respondent must not:

  • go to the home, workplace, or school of a protected person
  • watch, follow, or hang around a protected person
  • try to stop a protected person from coming or going anywhere
  • contact a protected person by phone, text, email, letters, online messaging, or in any other way.
3

No weapons

The respondent must not have any weapons or a firearms licence.

If the respondent has any weapons or a firearms licence, they must hand them over to the police within 24 hours of receiving the order.

Having contact with a respondent when a Protection Order is in place

You, as the protected person, can choose how much contact you have with the respondent when a Protection Order is in place.

You can agree to contact

You can have contact with the respondent when a Protection Order is in place. You must agree in writing before this can happen. You can do this by email, letter, text, or another digital message.

You can be specific about the type of contact you agree to — for example, only by phone or text but not in person.

You can change your mind and stop contact with the respondent at any time. You don’t have to do this in writing, you can just tell them.

Contact with a protected child

You can’t agree for the respondent to have contact with a protected child if:

  • the court has ordered supervised contact
  • there are other conditions ordered by the Court that say the respondent can’t have contact with the child.

If you’re unsure about whether you or your child can have contact with the respondent, talk to a lawyer.

Get legal advice and help

Other situations where you may have contact

If you haven’t agreed to contact in writing and the ‘no contact’ condition is in place, then you and the respondent can only contact each other in the following situations.

  • There's an emergency and the contact is reasonably necessary
  • The contact is part of a court order (such as a Parenting Order) or part of a written parenting agreement between you and the respondent
  • The contact is listed as a special condition of the Protection Order
  • You all need to take part in a Family Group Conference, case conference or hearing under the Care of Children Act or any other court proceedings
  • You and the respondent have agreed to take part in restorative justice.

If Protection Order rules are not followed

If the respondent breaks the conditions of the order, you should report it to the Police. The respondent can be arrested by Police and charged with a criminal offence. They’ll have to appear in the Criminal Court.

If they’re found guilty of breaking the conditions of a Protection Order, they can be sent to prison for up to three years.

Most of the time, the court will order the respondent to attend an assessment and a non-violence programme. If the respondent doesn’t complete this, they can be fined up to $5000 or be sent to prison for up to six months.

Feeling overwhelmed?

There are services available if you need help or support for family violence.

Visit our help page to find specialist family violence support