The Court:
Melbourne Magistrates Court
The Charges
The Allegations
The client had made an application for a Personal Safety Intervention Order against his partner’s ex-partner. The client sought legal assistance from our office after being served with an interim Personal Safety Intervention Order by the opposing party. This was a matter involving cross-applications between our client and his partner’s ex. There had been an extensive history of harassment and stalking behaviour from the other party towards our client, where there had been previous intervention orders against the other side and a breach of the current interim order, as the other party had shown up to our client’s home breaching the order.
At Court
Our solicitor attended the directions hearing of the matter and made an application to strike out the intervention order filed by the other party, which was deemed to be merely in retaliation and an abuse of process. The Magistrate ultimately agreed and struck out the application.
With the cross-application, the other party initially did not consent to an order, and the matter was therefore booked in for a one-day contested hearing.
The Outcome
On the day of the contested hearing, the other party consented to a final Personal Safety Intervention Order. Notwithstanding that costs are only granted in exceptional circumstances, our solicitor successfully obtained costs against the other party.
