Domestic Family Violence

Many sections of the Family Law Act refer to aspects of family violence, including how courts must protect children from its consequences.

The Family Law Act 1975 (Section 4) defines family violence as:

'conduct, whether actual or threatened, by a person towards, or towards the property of, a member of the person's family that causes that or any other member of the person's family reasonably to fear for, or reasonably to be apprehensive about, his or her personal well-being or safety.'

At a more general level, Section 43(ca) requires a court to have regard to the need to protect individuals from family violence in circumstances of family violence .

Physical and sexual violence between family members is subject to legal intervention in the same way as violence between strangers.

However, family violence is not just physical. It can take the form of verbal, emotional, social or psychological abuse, financial or economic deprivation, or cultural or religious abuse.

Not all aspects of family violence give rise to criminal sanctions (e.g. the law has no penalty for cultural or religious abuse), however, all aspects of family violence can be relevant to Family Court proceedings.

An Apprehended Violence Order (AVO)

is an order made by a court restricting the behaviour of the person you take the order out against. The purpose of an AVO is to protect you from violence, harassment or intimidation in the future. An AVO usually states that a person cannot assault, harass, threaten, stalk, or intimidate you, or go within a certain distance of your home or workplace. Other orders can be included if necessary.

There are two types of Apprehended Violence Orders:

• Apprehended Domestic Violence Order (ADVO)
  An AVO made where the people involved are related, living together or in an intimate relationship, or have been in this situation earlier.
• Apprehended Personal Violence Order (APVO) An AVO made where the people involved are not related and do not have a domestic or personal relationship, eg. they are neighbours.

If the police have applied for an AVO on your behalf (ie. a police officer is the complainant) you do not need a lawyer as the police prosecutor will represent you in court. If you made a private complaint, you should get your own lawyer, although you can represent yourself in court.