About

Who is behind this website

AVO Defence Lawyers is an informational website about apprehended violence orders in New South Wales. This page sets out what it is, how a law practice is regulated here, and how to check all of it for yourself.

General information, not legal advice. This page sets out how the law generally applies. It does not take account of your circumstances, and you should get advice about your own situation before acting on it. The official sources this page is written from are listed on it; where they differ from anything here, they are the authority.

Last updated: 23 September 2026

There is a great deal of legal information online and much of it does not say who wrote it or where it came from. This page says. It is deliberately short on adjectives, because the things worth knowing are checkable facts rather than claims.

AVO Defence Lawyers is an informational website about apprehended violence orders in New South Wales. Legal services offered through this website are provided by Jameson Law.

What this website covers

Apprehended violence orders: the civil orders a court makes to protect a person from violence, intimidation, harassment or stalking, under the Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 (NSW).

The pages here describe how those orders work in New South Wales — the two kinds of order, how an application starts, what an order requires of a defendant, and what happens at court — and each one lists the official sources it was written from.

The site is written for the person the application is made against. That is a deliberate choice about who a page is useful to, not a view about any particular matter. Nothing here suggests that applications are usually unjustified, and nothing here is written to help anyone avoid an order that protects somebody.

Interim and provisional orders, which bind you before anything is decided
Consent without admissions, and what an order still does afterwards
Contested hearings, where an application is defended
Alleged breach, which is a criminal charge in its own right
Variations and revoking an order
Related criminal charges, and where children are involved

If an order has been served on you, its conditions apply now. Read them before anything else, and see the conditions on your order.

How a law practice is regulated in New South Wales

Solicitors in New South Wales practise under the Legal Profession Uniform Law, applied in this State by the Legal Profession Uniform Law Application Act 2014 (NSW). A solicitor may only practise while holding a current practising certificate, and the Law Society of NSW issues and enforces those certificates.

A practising certificate is not simply permission to trade. It carries obligations that run to you as the client: the conduct rules for solicitors, the duty of confidentiality, the duty of honesty to the court, costs disclosure rules, rules about how client money is held, and the requirement to be covered by professional indemnity insurance.

Complaints about a lawyer in New South Wales go to the Office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner, which receives all complaints about lawyers in this State and deals with them under the Uniform Law. It is independent of any firm. Our complaints page explains how to raise something first and where to take it if that does not settle the matter.

How to check a practising certificate

You do not have to take any of this on trust. The Law Society of NSW publishes a Register of Solicitors, an online directory of New South Wales practices and solicitors who hold a current practising certificate. Search a name and you can see whether the certificate is current.

One thing is worth knowing about the register: the type of practising certificate a solicitor holds does not necessarily reflect the position that solicitor occupies at their principal place of practice, so it is not a guide to seniority or role.

Do this for any lawyer you are considering, including anyone you reach through this website.

What the liability limitation means

The line Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation appears in the footer of this site, and it means something specific.

A professional standards scheme is approved under the Professional Standards Act 1994 (NSW). Where a participating solicitor is sued over their professional work, the scheme caps the damages a court may award, provided the requirements in the scheme instrument are met. The Law Society of NSW administers the scheme for its solicitor members in private practice and publishes the scheme instrument.

The limitation does not reduce the duties a solicitor owes you, and it does not affect your right to complain to the Legal Services Commissioner or to dispute a bill. It limits the amount of civil damages recoverable in the circumstances the scheme covers.

What this website is, and what it is not

Everything here is general information about apprehended violence orders in New South Wales. It is not legal advice and it cannot be, because it knows nothing about your order or what is alleged. Reading it does not make you a client, and sending an enquiry does not either: a practice acts for you once a conflict check is done and the scope of the work and what it will cost have been agreed in writing. How we work sets out that sequence step by step.

Some things are missing from this site on purpose.

Fees. No figures, not even a range. What a matter costs depends on whether it resolves at a mention or is contested, so a number published here would mislead you. You get it in writing before work begins.
Time limits and durations. How long an order runs, and how long a licence consequence lasts, depend on the order made and on legislation that is amended. We describe the mechanism and link to the source rather than printing a figure that goes quietly out of date.
Outcomes. No success rates, no case studies, no promises. Whether an order is made is a decision for the court.
Reviews and testimonials. None are published here. In this subject area a testimonial would also identify someone's family.
Your solicitor. The Jameson Law team is shown below. Ask which solicitor would have carriage of your matter before you engage the firm.

Each page lists the official sources it relies on, and where a page shows a review date, treat that date as the limit of what we are telling you. If a page here and an official source disagree, the official source is right — and we would like to know, so the page can be corrected.

Support services, and who this site is not for

If you are the person seeking protection, this site is not written for you, and you should not rely on it for advice about your own application. Legal Aid NSW publishes information for people applying for an order, and there are support services listed on our support page that are independent of us.

If you are in immediate danger, call 000.

If what you want is help to change your own behaviour, that is worth saying out loud. The support page lists services for that too, and it is not an admission of anything in your court matter.

Privacy, terms and accessibility

Our privacy policy sets out what personal information is collected through this site and how it is handled, under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. The terms of use cover the website itself.

Our accessibility page sets out the standard this site is built to, and how to ask for the same information in another format if any part of it is hard for you to use.