What is a Family Violence Intervention Order?

A Family Violence Intervention Order, commonly called an FVIO, is an order made under the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (Vic). Its purpose is protective: it can impose conditions intended to protect an affected family member, a child or property from family violence.

An FVIO proceeding is generally a civil and protective proceeding. An application records allegations and the protection sought; it is not itself a finding that the alleged conduct occurred. An interim order can also be made before disputed allegations are finally determined. Criminal liability arises separately if conduct is alleged to constitute an offence, including an alleged contravention of an operative order or safety notice.

FVIO proceedings are usually dealt with in the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria. The Children’s Court may deal with matters involving child applicants or respondents in circumstances provided by the legislation.

What can constitute family violence?

Victorian law is not confined to physical assault. Family violence can include behaviour by a person towards a family member that is physically or sexually abusive, emotionally or psychologically abusive, economically abusive, threatening, coercive, or otherwise controls or dominates the family member and causes them to fear for their safety or wellbeing or that of another person.

Depending on the facts, relevant conduct may include:

• physical violence, threats or intimidation;
• coercive or controlling behaviour;
• repeated abusive communications, surveillance or stalking;
• damage to property or harm to an animal;
• economic abuse, including unreasonable control of money or financial autonomy;
• conduct that isolates a person from family, friends or support; and
• behaviour that causes a child to hear, witness or otherwise be exposed to the effects of family violence.

The statutory definition is detailed and fact-specific. Not every difficult interaction or relationship dispute meets it. The Court considers the conduct alleged, the relationship, the evidence and the statutory requirements.

Who are the parties, and how can a case begin?

Applicant, affected family member and respondent

The applicant is the person who brings the application. The affected family member is the person whose protection is sought. They may be the same person, but they are not always: Victoria Police may be the applicant on behalf of an affected family member. The respondent is the person against whom the application or order is made.

Police and private applications

Proceedings may begin with a personal application made through the Court, or with police action following a reported or attended incident. Police can apply even where the affected family member does not wish to bring the application. A private applicant generally gives the Court information about the relationship, alleged conduct, current risk and the conditions sought.

A private application and a police application can involve different practical considerations. In a police application, police control the conduct of the application and may take a position about withdrawal, an undertaking or proposed conditions that differs from the affected family member’s position.

Family Violence Safety Notices and interim orders

Family Violence Safety Notice

Victoria Police may issue a Family Violence Safety Notice when immediate protection is considered necessary. A safety notice can impose conditions before the matter reaches court. Under the Act, the notice is taken to be an application for an FVIO and gives the respondent a court date.

A served safety notice must be followed. It generally remains the operative protection until the Court deals with the application or an intervention order that replaces it is served. A person should not assume that the affected family member can authorise conduct prohibited by the notice.

Interim FVIO

The Court may make an interim FVIO to provide protection while the proceeding continues. It may be made before the respondent has attended or before all disputed evidence has been heard. Its interim character does not make it optional: once operative, its conditions must be obeyed unless and until the Court changes or revokes it.

An interim order is not necessarily a final determination of the allegations. The application may later resolve by agreement, be withdrawn, or proceed to a contested determination.

Understanding the conditions

The actual document matters. Conditions are not identical from case to case and can range from a prohibition on committing family violence to extensive restrictions on contact, communication, proximity and access to premises.

Conditions may address:

• family violence against a protected person;
• direct or indirect contact, including contact through another person;
• approaching or remaining near a person or specified location;
• exclusion from a residence, even where the respondent has an ownership or tenancy interest;
• damage to property;
• communication or arrangements involving children; and
• firearms or weapons consequences arising under the applicable law.

A general understanding of intervention orders is not a substitute for reading every condition. Before consenting to proposed conditions, both applicants and respondents should consider how the wording may operate in daily life, including children’s arrangements, work, housing, property collection and necessary communications.

The first court date and possible options

The first listing is usually not the final contested hearing. The Court may check service, identify whether an interim order is in place, hear the parties’ positions, consider immediate conditions and give directions about what happens next.

Depending on the case, potential outcomes or next steps may include:

• an adjournment for legal advice or negotiation;
• an interim order continuing, being varied or being opposed;
• consent to a final order, including consent without admissions;
• withdrawal or resolution by an undertaking where available and agreed;
• negotiation about the scope of conditions; or
• directions preparing a disputed application for a contested hearing.

Consent without admissions

Consent without admissions means that the respondent does not admit the allegations but agrees to the Court making the order. It is not a criminal plea and does not itself amount to an admission that family violence occurred. It can nevertheless produce a legally enforceable final order with important practical consequences, so its suitability should be considered rather than assumed.

Undertakings

An undertaking is a written promise about future conduct. It is not an intervention order and a breach of the undertaking is not prosecuted as a contravention of an FVIO. An alleged failure to comply may, however, be relied upon in a later or revived application. An undertaking usually requires agreement, and may not be available or acceptable in a police application.

Contested hearings and evidence

If the application, alleged conduct, need for an order or proposed conditions remain disputed, the matter may be prepared for a contested hearing. Directions can require the parties to identify issues, provide further particulars, arrange witnesses and comply with filing requirements.

At a contested hearing, the Court receives evidence and submissions and determines the application under the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (Vic). Evidence may include oral testimony, contemporaneous messages, photographs, recordings lawfully obtained, documents, police material and other admissible evidence. Witnesses may be cross-examined, subject to protective procedures and statutory restrictions that can apply in family violence proceedings.

The evidentiary and procedural framework is not necessarily the same as a criminal prosecution or federal family-law case. The same message, statement or allegation may be relevant in more than one jurisdiction, but it is considered for a different legal purpose and under the rules governing that proceeding.

Final orders and connected proceedings

Final FVIOs

A final order is a continuing, enforceable order made after consent or a court determination. The order states its conditions and duration. A final FVIO is not itself a criminal conviction, but alleged non-compliance may lead to criminal investigation and charges.

One matter can cross several jurisdictions

The same factual circumstances may produce FVIO proceedings in the Magistrates’ Court, a criminal investigation or prosecution, and parenting proceedings in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. These proceedings serve different purposes, apply different statutory tests and may use different procedural and evidentiary frameworks. They remain separate, but decisions, evidence and conditions in one can have important practical consequences in another.

An FVIO does not automatically determine parenting arrangements, and a parenting order does not simply erase an FVIO. The wording and timing of each order must be considered carefully. Read more about family law and family violence, related criminal proceedings, and alleged contraventions.