Responding to an application for an Apprehended Violence Order

If you have been served with an application for an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) there are many things you need to consider.

 If you are under 18 years of age, your case will be dealt with differently. For more information, see Apprehended Violence Orders against children. 

​Who ap​plied for the Apprehended Violence Order

An application for an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) can be made by:

• a police officer on behalf of the person who wants protection (called a 'police application')
• a guardian appointed under a guardianship order
• the person who wants protection themselves through the Local Court (called a 'private application')

 From 3 December 2016, the Children's Court in care proceedings can make an AVO to protect children.

When an application is made, the people involved in the application are called:

• Applicant: the person asking the Court to make an AVO. The protected person will be the applicant if they made the application for an AVO through the Local Court. If a police officer made the application for the protected person the applicant will be the police officer. The applicant may also be called 'the complainant'.
• Protected person: the person that the applicant says needs protection from you. If a person makes an application to protect themselves from you they are both the protected person and the applicant. They may also be called the 'Person in Need of Protection' (PINOP).
• Defendant: the person the protected person says they need protection from. If you have been served with an application for an AVO, you are the defendant.  ​

What the applicant needs to show the Court

To get an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO), the applicant will need to prove that:

• they, or the protected person, fears that you will be violent towards them, harass them, intimidate or stalk them (this is a 'subjective test', which means that it is based on what the protected person actually feels), and
• that the protected person's fear is based on reasonable grounds (this is an 'objective test', based on whether the Court believes that a person in the protected person's situation would feel the same as the protected person).

In Letti and Carol's case, the Court may decide not to make a Final AVO because a great deal of time has passed since Carol sent Letti the emails and Carol has not acted in a threatening manner. In Lino and Daniel's case, the Court is more likely to make an AVO because the events happened recently and Daniel has been violent.

Service of documents

Service is the process of giving or sending court documents to a person to notify them of those documents.

If you are the defendant in an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) matter, you must be served personally with the application for an AVO. You must be told that an application has been filed against you and that you have to go to court. 

If an AVO has already been made against you, you must be served with a copy of the AVO because you must be told if there are court orders that you must follow. If you are not served with a copy of the AVO you can’t be convicted for breaching the AVO, unless you were at court when the order was made. 

This section covers:

• Serving an application for an Apprehended Violence Order
• Serving an Apprehended Violence Order
• Police detention
  
• Substituted service. 

For more information, see Service of documents.  

How to respond to an application for an Apprehended Violence Order

There are a number of ways that you can respond to an application for an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO):

• ask for an adjournment to get legal advice
• ask for the case to be moved to another court
• consent (agree) to the AVO without admissions (without agreeing to the facts)
• consent (agree) to the AVO with admissions (agreeing to the facts)
• give the Court an undertaking (formal promise)
• make a cross application
• oppose the application
• do nothing.

For more information, see How to respond to an application for an Apprehended Violence Order.

Before responding to an application for an AVO you should consider:

• whether the applicant can prove there is a need for an AVO to be made
  
• who is listed as a protected person. A child of the protected person will often automatically be included as a protected person in an application for Apprehended Domestic Violence Orders. This may affect contact with your children. If your child has been listed as a protected person, you should get legal advice.

Provisional and Interim Apprehended Violence Orders

While an application for an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) is being decided, there are two types of temporary AVOs that can be made to protect the protected person:

• a Provisional AVO, and 
• an Interim AVO. 
  

The police can apply for an urgent Provisional AVO.

For more information, see Provisional and Interim Apprehended Violence Orders​.

Final Apprehended Violence Orders

A court can make a Final Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) if:

• you didn’t go to court
• you agreed (consented) to the AVO
• the Court believes that an order should be made.

Once a Final AVO is made there are consequences of having the AVO and of breaching it.

For more information, see Final Apprehended Violence Orders.

Mandatory and additional orders

There are two different types of orders that may be included in an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO):

• mandatory orders
• additional orders. 
  

All AVOs include mandatory orders that may be called standard orders or 'Orders about behaviour'. 

The applicant can also ask for a range of additional orders. The applicant can also have orders that are written especially for their matter.​

For more information, see Mandatory and additional orders.

​Costs in Apprehended Violence Order cases

In Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) matters, the Court may award costs against the unsuccessful party.

If the Court dismisses the application, you can ask the Court to make an order that the protected person or the police pay your legal costs.

Legal costs include lawyer's fees and expenses such as conduct money for witnesses. Legal costs do not include lost wages.

For more information, see Costs in Apprehended Violence Order cases.

Recoveri​ng your personal property

If you have left personal property with the protected person, or the protected person has left property with you, the Court can make a Property Recovery Order.

A Property Recovery Order can only be made at the same time that a Provisional, Interim or Final Apprehended Domestic Violence Order (ADVO) is made. It can't be made after the case is finished or in Apprehended Personal Violence Order (APVO) cases.

For more information, see Recovering personal property.

​Charges and Apprehended Violence Orders

If an application for an Apprehended Violence Order has been made against you, you may also have been charged with a criminal offence, for example assault.

For more information, see Charges and Apprehended Violence Orders.

​​Cross application

If you have been served with an application for an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO), but you also fear the protected person, you may want to make a cross application against them.

The Court will treat your application like a normal application for an AVO.

For more information, see Cross applications.