Apprehended Violence Orders (AVO's)

Apprehended Violence Orders (AVO's) are also known as restraining orders and arise in situations of disputing parties and one fears violence or harassment from the other.

The types of situations that result in an AVO are varied, with two types of AVO's available as a result. These can either be:

• An Apprehended Personal Violence Order (APVO)
• An Apprehended Domestic Violence Order (ADVO)

An APVO will be enforced in disputes and situations between neighbours and work colleagues, generally reserved for issues like noise/construction complaints, copyright infringement, patent infringement and wrongful transfer of real property, also called fraudulent conveyance.

Whereas the ADVO refers to more serious situations where one party fears personal violence, molestation, harassing conduct, intimidation, or stalking.

AVO's are a common occurrence in many criminal lawyers cases due to the personal issues and disputes that can arise. AVO's can be quite easy to gain but are taken very seriously which means that if a defendant knowingly breaks the AVO's restrictions they can be subject to a fine, imprisonment, or both.

When an AVO is first set the defendant can decide to either consent to the AVO without admitting the allegations or fight against them with assistance from criminal lawyers if need be.

An A.V.O. should only be consented to after careful consideration and if the defendant chooses not to consent and fight against the order, then the matter will proceed to a hearing. During this hearing the defendant will have to opportunity to evidence and cross-examine the Applicant.

Breaching an AVO can result in 2 years imprisonment and/or a $5,500.00 fine meaning they need to be taken seriously, with criminal lawyers consulted if the defendant feels they have been unfairly judged.

Criminal lawyers are able to help defendants fight against an AVO as they can be cancelled or change through application to the court.

An AVO does not appear as a criminal record although they are not allowed to be in possession of any sort of firearms or own a firearms licence for 10 years after the AVO ends unless the AVO is cancelled.

Defending against an AVO can be difficult and time consuming, so criminal lawyers may be considered to assist in these matters if the defendant feels they do not deserve an AVO put against them.