Surviving Intervention Orders

Hello everyone,

Today I want to talk about Intervention Orders.

Intervention Orders are made more often than not when relationships break down. In theory, Intervention Orders are designed to protect people from domestic violence, stalking and/or harassment.

Unfortunately, however, many people who are angry with their ex-spouse apply for Intervention Orders simply to keep their spouse away from them and/or their children.

It is very easy to obtain an Intervention Order. You need to go to a local Magistrates Court and you can apply on an ex-parte basis (that is in the absence of the other party). Resulting in the other party having no idea that an application has even been made against them, until they are served with a Order by the police.

Often orders are then made which prevent the other party from seeing their children.

This is fine when there has been genuine violence, but in many cases this is simply untrue.

The Orders are fundamentally easy to get but very hard to remove, they are also very serious, as a breach of an Order is a criminal offence which in extreme cases can result in a term of imprisonment.

If you are served with an Intervention order you have three choices.

1) Accept it and then an order will usually be made against you for 12 months.
2) Agree to the order but on a limited basis and with a denial for the necessity for same.
3) Defend it.

Obviouly any ‘innocent’ person will want to defend the order and have it removed form their record.

However, defending it can be costly and given the court backlog may take several months before you get your day in court.

As a result often people accept such orders and then go to the Family Court to get Orders to see their children.

The problem is that the party with the Intervention Order can then bring it up as “evidence” of violence, fortunately however, judges realise that such orders are in many cases obtained without a proper hearing and on only one party’s version of events, and consequently such Order do not usually prevent parents from seeing their children for long.

It is perhaps ironic that such Orders which are designed to protect victims of violence are instead used as weapons in matrimonial disputes.

If you are served with an Intervention Order you must ensure the last think you do is breach it, no matter how unjust you believe it to be.

As always please feel free to comment on this or any other of my blogs. I would also be happy to respond to any questions you may have on this topic. If you have any further queries please feel free to contact me directly at Septimus Jones & Lee on +61 3 9613 6555