Domestic violence orders
If you need urgent help, call the police on 000.
If you need housing in a women’s refuge, call 1800 811 811.
How domestic violence order can help
A domestic violence order is a protection order made by the court to stop threats or acts of domestic violence against you.
This order can stop someone:
- approaching you at your home or workplace
- staying in a home you used to share together
- approaching you, your relatives or your friends, if named in the order, within a certain distance, such as 100 metres
- going to a child's school or day care centre.
If relevant, the order can tell someone to return your property to you or allow you to return to your old home to collect it.
You can apply for an order at a courthouse or the police may apply for you after taking the offender into custody.
When police apply for the order
When domestic or family violence occurs, the police may take the person committing the violence (known as the respondent) into custody in a watch-house for up to 4 hours.
When they release the respondent, police will give them a copy of the domestic violence order application, a date to appear in court and their release conditions, such as not approaching you in your home or workplace.
When you apply for the order
You can apply for a domestic violence order yourself or get a police officer, solicitor or authorised person to apply for you. These are known as private applications.
This order will have the same effects as an order issued from a police application. Police will still enforce the order if there is a breach.
You can apply for a domestic violence order at any courthouse. You should get legal advice before applying.
Legal Aid Queensland provides free legal advice and may be able to help you get a domestic violence order.
Going to court
When you, the police or someone you authorise (such as a relative) lodges the application, you will receive a date for the first hearing, called the ‘mention’.
If both you and the respondent attend the mention and agree on the order, the court may make a protection order. If you disagree on the order, the court may set a date for a hearing.
If the respondent doesn’t appear at the mention (and definitely received a copy of the application from police), the court can make a final protection order in their absence.
Order conditions
The respondent must obey the order’s conditions, which may include not committing violence towards you, not having any weapons or a weapons licence, and not approaching you or coming within a certain distance of you.
The order may last up to 2 years and be extended where necessary.
If a respondent disobeys a domestic violence order condition, they can be arrested and/or fined.
Note: A domestic violence order alone does not give a respondent a criminal record.
Temporary protection orders
If you believe you’re in immediate danger and the normal application process won’t protect you quickly enough, you can apply for an urgent temporary protection order.
You will go to court soon after you apply and it is done before the respondent is told about your application.
More about domestic violence.
