How we work

From the documents you were served with to a court date

What happens once you make contact, in the order it happens: what to tell us first, how the application is assessed, how costs are dealt with, and what you can expect from anyone acting for you.

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

Documents have been served, an order may already be in force, and there is a date on a piece of paper. This page sets out what an engagement involves, so you know what you are agreeing to before you agree to it.

AVO Defence Lawyers is an informational website about apprehended violence orders in New South Wales. Much of what follows is set by the Legal Profession Uniform Law and the conduct rules for solicitors in this State, and about sets out who provides legal services through this website.

Before anything else: the conditions you are already under

If an order has been served on you, its conditions apply from that moment. Not from your court date, and not from when you have had advice. Follow every one of them while you work out what to do about the application.

Do not contact the protected person, including through friends, relatives or children, if a condition prohibits contact. Their agreement does not lift a condition, and a condition is changed only through the proper route for your order. Contravening a condition is a criminal offence.

If you are not sure what a condition means, that is a question to ask a lawyer today. Our guide to the conditions on your order explains what is in every order and what a court can add.

If you are in immediate danger, call 000. Support services lists independent services for people who are afraid and for people who want to change their own behaviour.

The first conversation

We start with where you are up to: what you have been served with, who applied, whether an order is already in force, and when you are next required at court.

If your court date is close, say so at the very start rather than waiting for an appointment. A date that is days away changes the order in which everything else happens.

You do not need to prove anything to us and you do not need your documents organised. Bring what you have, including the parts that do not help you.

Every page of the order, including the conditions page
The application notice and the grounds relied on
Any police statement or facts sheet served with it
The date and time you were served, and by whom
Your next court date, and which court
Any criminal charge arising out of the same events, and any bail conditions
Any family law order or parenting arrangement involving the same children

Tell us at the first opportunity if you hold a firearms licence, a working with children check or an occupational registration, or if you are not an Australian citizen. Those change what a final order would mean for you.

The conflict check

Before a law practice can act for you it has to check whether it is able to. It cannot act where its duty to you would conflict with a duty owed to another client or with its own interests. That can arise in these matters, because both people in a family sometimes look for help in the same place.

So expect to be asked who else is involved, and asked early: the other party’s full name, and the names of anyone else named in the application. Where a conflict does exist you should be told, and told what the options are. What you say during that check is confidential whether or not you go on to engage the firm.

Please do not send the full detail of your matter, or a bundle of documents, before the conflict check is done. A short summary is enough to start.

Assessing the application

This is the work that decides everything after it, and it happens before anyone talks about tactics.

It has three parts. What is actually alleged, read from the application and the statements rather than from what was said at the scene. What the applicant would have to establish for an order to be made, which is a civil standard rather than a criminal one. And what a final order would mean for you in particular — for your work, your licences, your housing, your children and your status.

That third part is the one people skip, and it is the one that decides whether consenting without admissions is sensible or costly. It cannot be answered in general. It is answered against your circumstances.

What is alleged. The grounds, the statements, and the evidence behind them.
What can be established. On the balance of probabilities, by the applicant, on this material.
What an order would cost you. Firearms, occupation, licensing, a working with children check, family law, immigration status, housing.
What the alternatives are. Consent without admissions, negotiated conditions, a contested hearing, or an application to vary what is already in force.

Costs, in writing, before work starts

Under the Legal Profession Uniform Law a law practice must tell you in writing, at the outset, how its legal costs will be calculated and what it estimates the total will be. The disclosure has to set out your rights as well. A costs agreement is a separate document, and you do not have to sign one the day it is put in front of you.

We do not publish fees on this website. What an AVO matter costs depends on whether it resolves at a mention or is contested at a hearing, and on whether criminal charges run alongside it, so a figure published here would tell you nothing reliable about your own matter.

Legal Aid NSW may be able to help in some matters, including through duty services at court. It is worth asking about, and asking early rather than after you have engaged anyone.

In these proceedings a costs order against one party is possible in some circumstances, and the rules are not the same as in an ordinary civil case. That risk is explained before a hearing is sought, not after.

Running the matter to the court date

What happens at a mention can decide the matter: whether an order is made by consent, on what conditions, and for how long. Preparation for that day means knowing what conditions you can live with before anyone asks you.

Where a matter is contested, the court makes directions about statements and lists the matter for hearing. Those dates matter, because material served late may not be allowed in. See contested hearings.

Where an order is already in force and a condition is unworkable, an application to vary it can be made while everything else continues. See variations.

Through all of it the assessment continues. At each stage we tell you what the next step will cost and whether it still makes sense. A matter that should be resolved rather than fought should be resolved, and you should hear that from us rather than work it out from the bills.

How you are treated here

We take instructions without judgement, and you are not asked to justify yourself to us. Our job is to explain what the law requires, what the order does, and what your options are.

We do not use language that disparages an applicant or a protected person, and we will not tell you that applications like yours are usually unjustified. Some are, some are not, and it is not something a website can know.

We will not help anyone work around an order. If a condition is unworkable, the answer is an application to the court.

If what you want is to change your own behaviour rather than to fight the application, that is a legitimate thing to say to a lawyer, and it does not weaken your position to say it. Support services lists independent services that do that work.

Who does the work, and how you are kept informed

Ask who has carriage of your file and who to contact about it. You are entitled to know.

A solicitor’s duty is to keep you informed about the progress of your matter, in writing where that is practical. So expect to be told what has been filed, when, what the next step is, and what the other side has said. If you have not heard for a while, ask. A progress report needs no reason.

You can check that anyone advising you holds a current practising certificate on the Law Society of NSW’s Register of Solicitors. Do that for any lawyer you are considering, including anyone you reach through this website.

What we will not do

Three things, whatever you ask.

Promise an outcome. Whether an order is made is a decision for the court. Anyone who tells you a result in advance is telling you something they cannot know.
Keep a poor prospect to ourselves. A solicitor's duty is to advise you on the best course open to you, which includes saying when an application should not be contested and giving the reasons. You may still decide otherwise. What matters is that the decision is yours and informed.
Put something untrue in front of a court. Not a statement, not a date, not an account of what happened. A solicitor's duty to the court comes before the duty to the client.

If there is something in your history that will come out, say so early rather than leaving it to be produced at a hearing.

Confidentiality

What you tell a solicitor about your matter is confidential, subject to professional obligations, and communications made for the purpose of legal advice are ordinarily privileged.

There are limits, and they are the ordinary ones: a solicitor cannot help you commit an offence, and cannot mislead a court. Telling a lawyer something that has already happened is not the same as asking for help to do something.

How information sent through this website is handled is set out in the privacy policy.

If you are not happy

Tell us first, and early. Our complaints page sets out how to raise a complaint. A complaint about a solicitor, or a dispute about a bill, can also go to the Office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner, which is independent of the firm.

How to reach us

Use the enquiry form on the contact page. Keep a first message short: which court, the date, and whether an order is already in place. That is enough to start.

Enquiries

Through the form on our contact page.

Who you are contacting

AVO Defence Lawyers is an informational website about apprehended violence orders in New South Wales. About sets out who provides legal services through it and how a law practice is regulated here.

In an emergency

If you are in immediate danger, call 000.