Applying for a Protection Order in Queensland
A protection order is a civil order made by a Magistrates Court. It is not a criminal charge, and the test the court applies is not the criminal standard.
Protection orders in Queensland are made under the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012. A Magistrates Court may make an order where it is satisfied that a relevant relationship exists, that the respondent has committed domestic violence, and that an order is necessary or desirable to protect the aggrieved. A temporary protection order can be made quickly, often on the first return date, while the application is pending.
What the court has to be satisfied of
An application for a protection order is a civil proceeding, decided on the balance of probabilities rather than beyond reasonable doubt. That distinction is fundamental and is the source of most confusion about these orders. A protection order is not a criminal conviction and does not appear on a criminal history.
The court must be satisfied of three things: that a relevant relationship exists between the aggrieved and the respondent, that the respondent has committed domestic violence against the aggrieved, and that a protection order is necessary or desirable to protect the aggrieved from domestic violence. A relevant relationship means an intimate personal relationship, a family relationship, or an informal care relationship — so the Act reaches well beyond current partners.
Domestic violence under the Act is broader than physical violence. It includes emotional and psychological abuse, economic abuse, threatening and coercive behaviour, and behaviour that controls or dominates and causes fear. Queensland has also legislated in relation to coercive control, and patterns of behaviour rather than single incidents are increasingly the focus.
Temporary orders, and how quickly protection can be put in place
A final order takes time, because the respondent must be served and given an opportunity to be heard. A temporary protection order can be made much sooner — on the first return date, and in urgent cases without the respondent present — and it operates until the application is finally decided.
Police can also issue a police protection notice, which operates as a temporary measure and starts the court process. In practice a great many applications reach court that way rather than by a private application, and a person who has been protected by a police notice does not need to make a separate application.
The practical point is that a temporary order is real protection with real consequences for the respondent, and it is often obtained within days. The gap between reporting and final hearing is not a gap in protection.
Making the application, and what helps
An application can be made by the aggrieved, by a police officer, or by an authorised person on the aggrieved’s behalf. It is filed in a Magistrates Court and there is no filing fee. The application sets out the grounds — what has happened, and why an order is necessary or desirable.
How an order interacts with family law
A protection order and a parenting order are made by different courts under different legislation, and they can conflict. A Queensland court making a protection order has power to consider the effect on an existing family law order, and to take steps in relation to it, but it will only do so if it knows the order exists.
If there are children and existing family law orders, tell the court and tell your lawyer. Arrangements can usually be structured so that a protection order and a workable parenting arrangement coexist — supervised changeover, a nominated third party for communication, or contact limited to a specific written channel. Our parenting arrangements page covers the family law side.
Duration of orders, the coercive control provisions and police powers under the Act have all been the subject of recent amendment. Section numbers and periods are not reproduced here — confirm the current position against the legislation. See sources 1 and 2.