Intervention Orders in St Kilda

An intervention order allows the Magistrates Court of Victoria to restrain a person from committing family violence. It may restrain a party from damaging property, following the protected person, contacting the protected person, remaining within a certain distance of the protected person's home or getting another person to act on their behalf to do anything they may not under the intervention order.

If you disagree with the making of a final intervention order or the terms of the final intervention order, you may appeal against the magistrate’s decision to the County Court of Victoria within one month of the final intervention order being made. You can not appeal against an interim intervention order.

If a person disobeys an intervention order, the court has the power to impose a range of penalties including, a bond, a fine or a term of imprisonment of up to two years in duration.

If circumstances have changed since the time that a final intervention order was made (for example you and your partner reconcile) you must not ignore the intervention order. A party to the original application for an Intervention order can apply for the order to be revoked (cancelled) if there are new facts and circumstances arising since the intervention order was made, or they can apply to have the conditions of the intervention order varied. A final intervention order can only be made after the person who is to be restrained has been served with an application for an intervention order and evidence of such service has been provided to the court.

The Personal Safety Intervention Order Act 2010 (“PSI”) Act allows an application to be made for an intervention order where there is a real risk of harm or a person is the victim of pursuit-type stalking. Stalking is where a respondent engages in a course of conduct with the intention of causing physical or mental harm to a person, including self-harm or of arousing apprehension or fear in a person for their own safety or that of any other person

The Family Violence Protection Act introduced into the Residential Tenancies Act the power for a protected person named in a Final Family Violence Intervention Order to apply to the Victorian Civil & Administrative Tribunal (“VCAT”) for an order to terminate an existing tenancy agreement with the person excluded from the rental premises by the intervention order and imposing a requirement on the landlord to enter into a new Residential Tenancy Agreement with the protected person (Section 233A of the Residential Tenancies Act).