New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CRIMES (DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL VIOLENCE) ACT 2007 - SECT 16

16 Court may make apprehended domestic violence order

(1) A court may, on application, make an apprehended domestic violence order if it is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that a person who has or has had a domestic relationship with another person has reasonable grounds to fear and in fact fears--

(a) the commission by the other person of a domestic violence offence against the person, or

(b) the engagement of the other person in conduct in which the other person--

(i) intimidates the person or a person with whom the person has a domestic relationship, or

(ii) stalks the person,

being conduct that, in the opinion of the court, is sufficient to warrant the making of the order.

(2) Despite subsection (1), it is not necessary for the court to be satisfied that the person for whose protection the order would be made in fact fears that such an offence will be committed, or that such conduct will be engaged in, if--

(a) the person is a child, or

(b) the person is, in the opinion of the court, suffering from an appreciably below average general intelligence function, or

(c) in the opinion of the court--

(i) the person has been subjected on more than one occasion to conduct by the defendant amounting to a personal violence offence, and

(ii) there is a reasonable likelihood that the defendant may commit a personal violence offence against the person, and

(iii) the making of the order is necessary in the circumstances to protect the person from further violence, or

(d) the court is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the person has reasonable grounds to fear the commission of a domestic violence offence against the person.

(2A) An apprehended domestic violence order that is made in reliance on subsection (2)(d) cannot impose prohibitions or restrictions on the behaviour of the defendant other than those prohibitions that are taken to be specified in the order by section 36.

(3) For the purposes of this section, conduct may amount to intimidation of a person even though--

(a) it does not involve actual or threatened violence to the person, or

(b) it consists only of actual or threatened damage to property belonging to, in the possession of or used by the person.

Note : Part 8 provides for the matters that may be included in orders. Part 9 contains additional provisions relevant to the making of orders.