A no-contact condition can change a person’s life immediately.
Following a police attendance, a respondent may be required to leave their home, stop communicating with their partner and have no contact with children named on a Family Violence Safety Notice or intervention order. They may also be prohibited from asking anyone else to make contact on their behalf.
The purpose of these conditions is to protect affected family members. However, the practical consequences can be far more complicated than the words “no contact” suggest.
A message about collecting medication, arranging time with children or paying a household bill may seem harmless. It may still amount to a breach if it is not clearly permitted by the order.
At Galbally Parker, our intervention order lawyers regularly represent respondents, applicants and protected people in intervention order proceedings. This includes police applications where the affected family member does not support all the conditions being sought.
Our experience is that many alleged breaches arise not from further violence, but from people misunderstanding how strictly a no-contact condition operates.
How can a no-contact condition be imposed?
When police attend an alleged family violence incident, they may issue a Family Violence Safety Notice if they believe immediate protection is required.
A safety notice can:
- prevent the respondent from contacting the affected family member
- exclude the respondent from the family home
- prohibit the respondent from approaching certain locations
- protect children and property
- prevent other people from being used to make contact
The notice also operates as an application for a Family Violence Intervention Order and requires the respondent to attend court. The first court date must generally occur within 14 days of the safety notice being issued.
At court, the notice may be replaced by an interim intervention order. While the word “interim” suggests something brief, an interim order can remain in place while the application is being negotiated or contested.
As explained in our guide on what happens after you are served with an intervention order, contested proceedings may involve several administrative hearings before the matter reaches a final hearing. This means an interim order may remain in place for months.
During that period, the respondent must comply with every condition. The fact that the allegations have not yet been determined does not make the order optional.
The affected family member cannot give permission to breach the order
One of the most common and dangerous misunderstandings is that contact is permitted if the affected family member initiates it or says that they do not want the order.
That is not the case.
The order is made by the court, or initially imposed through a police safety notice. The affected family member cannot privately change its conditions or give the respondent permission to disregard them.
Victoria Legal Aid expressly warns that a respondent must not breach an intervention order even if the protected person says they can.
This creates difficult situations where the protected person continues sending messages, asks the respondent to return home or wants help with the children. Responding may still expose the respondent to a criminal allegation.
The safest approach is to obtain advice before replying. Where appropriate, a lawyer can communicate with police or the protected person’s representatives about varying the conditions or introducing practical exceptions.
What does “no contact” actually include?
The precise wording differs between orders, but a no-contact condition may prohibit communication through:
- telephone calls and text messages
- social media and messaging applications
- parenting applications
- letters or gifts
- shared online accounts
- friends, relatives or children
- any other person acting on the respondent’s behalf
A respondent may also be prohibited from going near the protected person, their home, workplace, school or childcare centre.
The intention behind the communication is not necessarily decisive. A polite, apologetic or practical message may still breach the order.
This is why the document must be read line by line. The important question is not whether the contact seems reasonable. It is whether the exact conduct is permitted by the conditions or an express exception.
The consequences can be significant. Although an intervention order is a civil order, breaching an intervention order can result in criminal charges.
Being excluded from a shared home
An exclusion condition can require a respondent to leave a property even where they own the home, are named on the lease or have been paying the mortgage.
The order does not determine ownership of the property. It does, however, control who may enter it while the condition remains in place.
Many orders contain a limited exception allowing the respondent to attend with a police officer to collect personal belongings. In practice, arranging police attendance can be difficult. The time available may also be brief, particularly where police are responding to other urgent matters.
This can leave a respondent without access to:
- identification and financial documents
- medication
- clothing and personal items
- computers and work equipment
- tools required for employment
- vehicles or keys
- sentimental or valuable property
Disputes may also arise over who owns particular belongings. Police attending a property collection will not ordinarily resolve a contested property dispute.
Before attending the home, the respondent should confirm exactly what the order allows. Entering without the required police presence, remaining longer than permitted or using the visit to discuss the relationship could result in an alleged breach.
Where more time is required, a lawyer may be able to negotiate an agreed collection process. Depending on the circumstances, it may also be possible to apply to the court to vary the conditions of a Family Violence Intervention Order.
No-contact conditions involving children
The position becomes particularly complicated when children are included as protected people.
A respondent should not assume that being a parent gives them an automatic right to communicate with or see a child contrary to the intervention order. Equally, the existence of parenting orders does not create a general permission to communicate with the other parent about any subject.
An intervention order may include an exception allowing conduct that is required or permitted by:
- an existing parenting order
- a child protection order
- a written agreement about child arrangements
- an agreed method of negotiating child arrangements
However, the Magistrates’ Court may also revive, vary, discharge or suspend an existing family law order under section 68R of the Family Law Act 1975.
The result depends on the precise wording of both sets of orders, when each order was made and whether any family law orders have been suspended or varied.
Victoria Legal Aid provides further general information about the interaction between children, parenting arrangements and family violence intervention orders. However, urgent advice may be required from lawyers who understand how the intervention order and family law proceedings affect one another.
A practical message can still become an alleged breach
We acted in a matter that demonstrates how easily communication can move outside a permitted exception.
Our client was subject to an intervention order involving his former wife. He was permitted to communicate about their children through a parenting application.
He sent a message asking whether he could take the children for a bike ride. His former wife agreed. He then asked whether the children could bring his bicycle, which remained at the former matrimonial home.
When the family law proceedings later became contested, that final part of the conversation was reported to police. It was alleged that asking for the bicycle did not relate strictly to the children and therefore breached the intervention order.
The distinction may appear artificial in an everyday conversation. Legally, however, the exception permitted communication about the children, not the collection of his property.
Where communication about children is allowed, it should remain brief and confined to necessary arrangements such as:
- changeover times and locations
- medical appointments
- schooling
- immediate welfare issues
- activities and transport
- matters expressly covered by the parenting orders
Property, money, the former relationship and unrelated disagreements should be kept out of the conversation.
The risks of indirect contact
No-contact conditions commonly prevent the respondent from asking someone else to communicate with the affected family member.
A respondent should not ask a parent, sibling, friend or child to:
- pass on an apology
- explain their side of the story
- ask the affected family member to withdraw the order
- negotiate their return to the home
- arrange the collection of property
- relay personal messages
Even well-intentioned contact can be interpreted as communication on the respondent’s behalf.
It is sensible to tell close friends and family members that they must not contact the affected family member for you. This is particularly important where relatives are angry, protective or attempting to reconcile the parties without understanding the conditions.
Using a lawyer or mediator to communicate
Many intervention orders contain an exception allowing communication through a lawyer or mediator.
This can provide a lawful way to address urgent practical issues, including:
- collecting belongings
- dealing with jointly owned property
- arranging payment of essential expenses
- discussing children where direct communication is prohibited
- organising access to vehicles, pets or work equipment
- proposing changes to the conditions
The exception should always be checked before communication occurs. It may permit contact through a lawyer without allowing the respondent to participate directly.
Engaging a lawyer to send a short letter may feel disproportionate to the issue being discussed. However, it is considerably less costly and disruptive than responding to criminal charges for breaching an intervention order.
What should you do after receiving a no-contact order?
As soon as you are served, you should:
- Read every condition and exception carefully.
- Keep an electronic copy of the complete notice or order.
- Do not rely on verbal permission from the affected family member.
- Avoid responding to messages until you understand whether contact is permitted.
- Tell friends and relatives not to communicate on your behalf.
- Gather any existing parenting or child protection orders.
- Identify urgent issues involving accommodation, medication, employment, children and property.
- Obtain legal advice before the first court appearance.
The Magistrates’ Court provides general information about responding to a Family Violence Intervention Order application. However, the court cannot provide legal advice about how the conditions apply to a respondent’s individual circumstances.
Early advice provides an opportunity to identify conditions that are unworkable and seek appropriate exceptions. It may also prevent an avoidable breach from turning a civil intervention order matter into a criminal prosecution.
Advice tailored to the actual conditions
There is no universal meaning of “no contact”. The risks depend on the wording of the order, the people protected, the exceptions included and whether there are related criminal or family law proceedings.
Galbally Parker’s family violence lawyers regularly assist respondents, applicants and protected people in complex family violence matters. We look beyond the next court date and consider how the conditions may affect children, housing, employment, property and related proceedings.
If you have received a Family Violence Safety Notice or intervention order, particularly where children or a shared home are involved, arrange an appointment with one of our experienced intervention order lawyers before taking any action that may place you in breach.