Applying for a Protection Order: Long-term protection against family violence
Legal words and phrases when you go to the Family Court
- The applicant is the person who applies for a Protection Order because they have been, or are being abused. In other words, the “applicant” is you – the victim of the violence. After an order is made, they’re sometimes also called the “protected person” (although other people can be protected by the order as well, and so will also be “protected people”).
- The respondent is the person the application for a Protection Order is made against. They’re the person that the applicant (you) claims has been violent or abusive. They’ll have the option of “responding” to the allegation against them.
- A child of the applicant’s family is a child under the age of 17 who usually lives with the applicant. They don’t have to be a biological child of either the applicant or the respondent.
- An associated respondent is someone who the respondent has encouraged to abuse or threaten the applicant and that’s why they’ve been named in the Protection Order. The Protection Order will be in force against them, in the same way as it is against the respondent.
