Courts priority area

Reforming the courts response to family violence

The court is often a crucial part of a victim survivor’s journey when seeking protection from family violence. The court system is being transformed to make it safer for victim survivors and families. This will ensure people have the support they need, including supporting respondents to change their behaviour.

We are also working to make courts accessible, so our diverse Victorian community has equal access to justice.

Specialist Family Violence Courts are the centrepiece of family violence reforms to the courts system.

These courts provide a trauma-informed response to family violence. They give victim survivors more choice over their court experience. They also provide greater access to support services that help victim survivors at court and beyond.

The work occurring through the Rolling Action Plan focuses on:

  • strengthening court reforms
  • improving services to keep victim survivors and families safe through the court system
  • holding perpetrators of family violence to account.

This work also continues to develop and refine technology-driven initiatives, building on recent experience from the COVID-19 pandemic.

What has happened

What is next

Most activities within this priority area will continue through until 2023. The timeframes for delivery acknowledge the complexity of creating change within our court system. They provide sufficient time to achieve this in a way that will ensure sustained outcomes for Victoria.

Continuing activities include:

  • planning for the gazettal of a further seven Specialist Family Violence Courts in 2022, as well as planning for the associated capital works to be delivered over the coming years through to 2025
  • expanding the availability of Court Mandated Counselling Orders to other headquarter court locations
  • progressing the development and implementation of the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria Koori family violence strategy. This will guide how the court approaches family violence in the Aboriginal community
  • expansion of online and remote capabilities, including expansion of supported remote hearing access to a further 10 non-court locations
  • enhancements to the online family violence intervention order application process. These changes will help reduce the need for a victim survivor to physically attend a court building
  • training and capability building will continue across the workforce including:
    • family violence training to judiciary and court staff
    • MARAM-focused training to judiciary and court staff, including to support those who work with respondents
    • training of specialist staff and multidisciplinary training of judiciary and court staff in the Specialist Family Violence Courts.

What this means for outcomes

Updated