Intervention Orders and Your Children

Children must be included on Intervention Orders if they have been affected by family violence. Family violence is deemed to have affected children if they have witnessed it or been present when it has occurred, or if they have been exposed to family violence after it has occurred. This can include seeing the police in their house, viewing damaged property, or seeing a parent with injuries resulting from family violence.

If children are named as affected family members on an Intervention Order, the Order’s conditions apply to them. The Court may suspend or cancel any family law order made by the Federal Circuit Court or the Family Law Courts. This means the respondent will not be allowed to spend time with the children as set out in the parenting order until this order has been varied or lifted.

If you do not report your children’s involvement in family violence, the Magistrate will still ask if they have seen it or been present when it has occurred. Based on your response, the Magistrate may decide to include the children on the Intervention Order, or make a separate Intervention Order on their behalf.

Important Note: An Intervention Order is not a parenting order. If there is disagreement regarding who your children spend time with (or division of property), you can contact the Family Law Courts. If the Department of Health and Human Services (Child Protection) are involved with your children, you must tell your lawyer or the Court about any child protection orders. These will affect what conditions can be on your Intervention Order. For further information about child protection orders, visit the Children’s Court of Victoria website.