An Intervention Order is a court order protecting a person, their children and their property from family violence by prohibiting action or behaviour of a person that is a family member (known as the respondent). The applicant of the Intervention Order can be applied on your own or by the authorities (Victoria Police and Department of Health and Human Services).
Family violence goes beyond physical and verbal abuse. It includes emotional abuse, psychological abuse, financial abuse, social isolation, any harassment and stalking, threatened to damage or damaged property or pets, sexual abuse or spiritual or religious abuse and any other behaviour which causes a person to fear for their own safety or safety of their family.
The respondent must comply with the conditions outlined in the Intervention Order. The conditions in the Intervention Order outlines what the respondent can and cannot do. Failure with the Intervention Order could result in criminal charges such as breach of family violence and other charges related to the act.
Our lawyers at Unite Legal have extensive experience in handling various settings of Intervention Orders and can represent you in these circumstances:
- Representing the applicant of intervention order.
- Representing the affected family member (AFM) with police as the applicant.
- Representing the respondent of intervention order applied by applicant
- Representing the respondent of intervention order applied by police on behalf of AFM, with or without criminal charges on the respondent.
- Representing the respondent for interview with police for investigation of breach of intervention order.
- Representing applicant or respondent in revocation or variation application of intervention order.
If you are in any of the above circumstances, we encourage that you contact our team for legal advice and to guide you through the process.
There are two types of Intervention Order: Family Violence Intervention Orders and Personal Safety Intervention Orders. Family Violence Intervention Orders protects you from a person who is a member of your family such as your partner, children, parents or other relatives. Separation in a relationship is one of the most common scenarios triggering the application for Family Violence Intervention Order. Besides restraining one from violence, the effect is that evicting one from home or separate a parent from the child or children.
On the other hand, Personal Safety Intervention Orders protects you from a person who is not your family member who committed assault, harassment, stalking, serious threats and property damage. A person’s behavior is considered harassment when a person engages course of conduct which is demeaning, derogatory or intimidating towards you.
The common conditions in Intervention Order are:
- No violence
- Prohibiting someone from contacting the applicant by any means
- Going to or remain within 200 metres of the protected person or the home or workplace of the protected person
- No publication in any electronic form about the protected person
Getting another person to do anything that must not be done in the order.
In resolving Intervention Order without going to a “full blown” contested hearing, the Respondent can offer an undertaking or “consent without admission”. Consenting to Intervention Order without admission means the Respondent is agreeing to the orders be made without admitting to the allegations made against the Respondent. Breaching an Intervention Order would result in criminal charges.
Undertaking is a formal agreement between the Applicant and the Respondent for the protection of the Applicant. If undertaking is breached, the Applicant can proceed with the original application. Breaching the undertaking is not a crime and the police may not be involved. It is the Applicant’s discretion whether to accept the Undertaking.
You may consider revocation or variation of intervention order application. These varies depending on the circumstances and what you wish to achieve. Contact us to discuss further.
If the orders in the Intervention Order is breached, the Respondent can be criminally charged for breach of Intervention Order. The maximum penalty for breaching an Intervention Order in Victoria is 2 years imprisonment or fine or both.
