Protection Orders
A Protection Order is a legal Order designed to protect you and your children from further violence. A Judge can make a Protection Order if they are satisfied there has been domestic violence. The Judge also needs to be sure that the Order will work to protect you, and any children that usually live with you, from a violent person.
Under the NZ Domestic Violence Act 1995 "Domestic violence" includes:
- physical abuse, such as punching, choking, kicking or throwing things
- sexual abuse, including saying sexual things, forcing the other person to look at pornography, or any kind of unwanted sexual contact
- psychological abuse, including:
- intimidation
- harassment
- damaging property
- making threats (including over the internet or in text messages)
- financial or economic abuse, such as restricting a person's access to bank accounts or other financial resources, or restricting their job opportunities or access to education.
How does a Protection Order work?
The person who applies for a Protection Order is called the 'applicant'. The Protection Order protects the applicant and any children who live with them. When a child turns 17, they remain protected by the Protection Order if they live with the person who applied for it. The person who is being violent is called the 'respondent'. If the respondent is being violent towards other people, like a new partner, older children or a flatmate, the Order can protect them too. The applicant must ask for these people to be protected in the Order. The Protection Order will protect the applicant and other people named on the Order from the respondent. If the respondent encourages other people to be violent towards the applicant, the Protection Order will protect you against those people as well. Those people are called associated respondents.
Applying for a Protection Order
To apply you'll need to fill out an application form, which you are strongly advised to do with the help of a lawyer. Your lawyer will write down your account of what's happened and why you need a Protection Order in a sworn statement (affidavit). At the same time you can also apply for any other court orders you need, such as a Property Order or Parenting Order. The application form and the statement will then be given to the Family Court. If it's urgent, the Family Court can make a temporary Protection Order, usually on the same day. This is made without notifying the violent person (the respondent), but the respondent can ask to be heard before a final Order is issued. If the application is not urgent, the respondent will be served with the application (on notice) and will have the chance to defend it. The Family Court Judge will then listen to the evidence from both sides and decide if a final Protection Order should be issued.
How long is a Protection Order for?
When an Order is made before the respondent is given notice, it is temporary and runs for three months. If the respondent does not defend it, the Order will automatically become final after the three months are up and will stay in force permanently. The applicant can choose at any time to ask the Court to cancel the Order. If the respondent objects to the Order and defends it, a hearing date will be set by the Court and the applicant will be told about it. The Court will then consider both sides.
What does the Protection Order say?
Family Court Protection Orders have standard conditions but they are also flexible enough to deal with individual situations. Some of the conditions the respondent must follow are listed below. Non-violence conditions, the respondent:
- must not physically, psychologically or sexually abuse or threaten the applicant or their children
- must not damage or threaten to damage the applicant's property
- must not encourage anyone else to physically, sexually or psychologically abuse or threaten the applicant or their children.
Programmes
In most cases, the respondent will be required to attend a Court-appointed 'stopping violence' programme to help them live without violence. Jigsaw Central Lakes runs a court approved Non Violence programme for respondents and applicants and their children are able to access Safety Programmes through Jigsaw – all programmes are free of charge to the participants.