What is a Personal Safety Intervention Order?

A Personal Safety Intervention Order (PSIO) is a court order to protect a person and/or their children from physical or mental harm caused by another person who is not a family member.

This could include neighbours, acquaintances, colleagues or strangers. For harm caused by a family member, see information on Family Violence Intervention Orders instead.

When a PSIO is available

A PSIO is available to protect you and your children from threats arising from assaults, sexual assaults, harassment, serious threats, stalking. You can also get a PSIO if your property has been damaged by another person.

For a PSIO to be obtained, these behaviours are required to have occurred more than once in most cases. These behaviours must also be deliberate. In order words, the respondent must know (or ought to have known) that their behaviour would be likely to cause harm, apprehension or fear.

Conditions in a PSIO

There are conditions regarding how the person the order is made against (the ‘respondent’) can behave towards the person the order protects (the ‘applicant’ or ‘protected person’). The respondent must adhere to the conditions of the order.

These conditions can include preventing the respondent from:

Stalking, assaulting, harassing, threatening, or from any behavior that is offensive towards the protected person.
Approaching or contacting the protected person in any way such as telephoning, texting or emailing. An exception to this is the communication via the police, a lawyer, a mediator or some other nominated person.
Approaching or remaining within a certain distance from the protected person. This may also include preventing them from going near any premises where the protected person lives, works or regularly attends except with the presence of a police officer.
Damaging or threatening to damage or interfere with any property of the protected person.

Applying for a PSIO

You can apply for a PSIO yourself or an appointed person, like a police officer or parent can apply on your behalf. The most important part of your evidence will be telling the court what happened. You will be able to apply for an intervention order without any other evidence.

Before applying, you may wish to consider and obtain any relevant evidence. These can include:

witnesses,
photos, diaries and other written evidence,
medical evidence, and,
police and legal evidence.

You can apply for a PSIO by filling in an application form either online or at court. You may also wish to seek legal advice and other support services as the application and court process may be a difficult and emotional experience.

If you are in immediate danger or if you feel unsafe, contact the police immediately by calling 000.

Verge Legal provides legal advice in all states in Australia, contact us today if you need assistance.

This blog post provides general information and is not intended as legal advice. It may not be complete or up-to-date. For specific legal advice, please consult a qualified lawyer.