By James Stevens, Director and Solicitor, Go To Court Lawyers. Last reviewed 10 April 2026.
Key points
- Breaching a domestic violence order in Queensland is a criminal offence. The maximum penalty is a fine of 120 penalty units, which is $20,724 from 1 July 2026, or three years' imprisonment. If you were convicted of a domestic violence offence in the five years before the breach, the maximum is 240 penalty units ($41,448) or five years (Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012 (Qld), section 177).
- The same 120-penalty-unit, three-year maximum applies to breaching a police protection direction (a new police-issued order from 1 January 2026), a police protection notice, or the conditions police set when they release you from custody.
- You can only be guilty if you knew about the order: you were in court when it was made, you were served with it, or a police officer told you about it. If police told you, the prosecution must prove they told you about the condition you broke.
- The protected person's consent is not a defence. If the order says no contact, a text message, a visit or a phone call is a breach even if they asked for it, and they cannot withdraw the charge.
- Police must investigate a reported breach and can charge you. They can arrest you without a warrant for a breach charge, enter a home without a warrant where they suspect domestic violence, and hold you for up to four hours (eight if you are too intoxicated to understand the paperwork) while they apply for an order.
- Bail: you must show cause, that is, prove you should be released, if the breach involved violence or threats, if you were convicted of a violent offence in the previous five years, or if you were convicted of another breach in the previous two years.
- Almost every breach charge, 99.9% since 2012, is sentenced in the Magistrates Court. Between 2016-17 and 2023-24 a fine was the most common sentence (39.6%), 19.0% of people were sent to prison for an average of 6.7 months, and first-time offenders with no prior domestic violence history were imprisoned in 6.1% of cases.
- In danger now: call 000. 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 is free and answers 24 hours. For a lawyer, call 1800 577 015 at any hour: free general legal information, and a 60-minute consultation with a Queensland lawyer for a fixed $295.
In Queensland, breaching a domestic violence order carries a maximum of 120 penalty units ($20,724) or three years' imprisonment, rising to 240 penalty units ($41,448) or five years if the respondent was convicted of a domestic violence offence in the previous five years, under section 177 of the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012 (Qld).
Everything on this page was checked against the Act, the Bail Act 1980, the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992, the Queensland Courts and Queensland Police websites and the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council on 22 October 2026. The value of a penalty unit changes each 1 July; the dollar figures are at the current $172.70.
The penalties for every breach offence
| Offence | Section | Maximum fine | Maximum imprisonment | Where it is heard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breaching a domestic violence order (no domestic violence offence conviction in the previous five years) | s 177(2)(b) | 120 penalty units ($20,724) | 3 years | Magistrates Court |
| Breaching a domestic violence order, with a conviction for a domestic violence offence in the five years before the breach | s 177(2)(a) | 240 penalty units ($41,448) | 5 years | Indictable, but heard in the Magistrates Court unless the magistrate decides it is too serious; at most 3 years if sentenced there |
| Breaching a police protection direction (from 1 January 2026) | s 177A | 120 penalty units ($20,724) | 3 years | Magistrates Court |
| Breaching a police protection notice | s 178 | 120 penalty units ($20,724) | 3 years | Magistrates Court |
| Breaching release conditions set by police | s 179 | 120 penalty units ($20,724) | 3 years | Magistrates Court |
| Another adult committing domestic violence against the protected person to help the respondent | s 179A(1); s 179A(2) if for a benefit | 120 penalty units ($20,724); 240 ($41,448) if for a benefit | 3 years; 5 years if for a benefit | Magistrates Court; indictable if for a benefit |
| Coercive control (a course of domestic violence intended to coerce or control, for acts after 26 May 2025) | Criminal Code s 334C | No fine stated | 14 years | Indictable (a crime) |
"Domestic violence offence" is wider than an earlier breach. It means any offence under the breach provisions of the Act, and any offence under another Act, such as an assault or stalking, where the act was also domestic violence. So an assault conviction four years ago lifts a breach today to the five-year maximum. A prosecution for a breach heard in the Magistrates Court must be started within one year of the breach, or within one year of it coming to the complainant's knowledge and within two years of the breach.
What counts as a breach
A breach is doing anything the order's conditions forbid. The standard conditions require you to be of good behaviour towards the protected person and not commit domestic violence; most orders add others, such as no contact, not approaching the person or their home or work, or not going within a stated distance. Read the conditions of your own order: the Act writes in exceptions where it means them, so a condition means what it says unless it is expressed with an exception.
- You must have known about the order. Section 177 applies only if you were present in court when the order was made, were served with a copy, or were told about it by a police officer, who may do that by telephone, email, text message or social media. A court cannot find a breach merely because police told you the order existed unless it is satisfied they told you about the condition you are said to have broken, and the prosecution must prove that beyond reasonable doubt.
- Consent is not a defence. The Act says the protected person does not commit an offence by encouraging, permitting or authorising conduct that breaches the order. It says nothing to excuse the respondent. Contact the protected person asked for is still a breach if the order prohibits it.
- Interstate orders recognised in Queensland are enforced here too, and it is no defence that you did not know breaching one is an offence in Queensland.
- A breach does not have to involve violence. A message, a visit or a phone call in breach of a no-contact condition is enough. Breaches that do involve violence or threats affect bail and sentence, as set out below.
What happens after a breach is reported
- Police must investigate. An officer who reasonably suspects domestic violence has been committed must investigate, and if they then reasonably believe it has, must consider what action protects the aggrieved: a charge, an application to the court, a police protection direction or a police protection notice.
- Arrest and entry. A breach charge is in itself a lawful reason to arrest an adult without a warrant (Police Powers and Responsibilities Act 2000, section 365). Police may enter and stay at a place without a warrant where they reasonably suspect domestic violence is occurring or has occurred there, detain people there while they establish what happened, and search.
- Custody. While investigating, police may take a person into custody if they reasonably suspect domestic violence and someone is in danger of injury or property in danger of damage. The person is held at a station or watch-house for no more than four hours, or eight hours if too intoxicated to understand the documents, while police prepare an application for a protection order, and may not be questioned about an offence during that time.
- Release on conditions. If you cannot be brought before a court, police release you on conditions that protect the aggrieved. Breaching those conditions is a separate offence with the same three-year maximum.
- The charge. You are either arrested and charged, which raises bail, or given a notice to appear with a date at the Magistrates Court. Missing that date leads to a warrant.
Bail on a breach charge
Bail must be refused where there is an unacceptable risk that you would fail to appear, commit an offence, endanger the safety or welfare of the person claimed to be the victim or anyone else, or interfere with witnesses. For a breach charge the court or police must also weigh the risk of further domestic violence by you.
You must show cause, that is, satisfy the court that your detention is not justified, before bail can be granted if the breach involved the use, threatened use or attempted use of violence to a person or property; if within the previous five years you were convicted of another offence involving violence; or if within the previous two years you were convicted of another breach of a domestic violence order. The same applies to a charge of choking or strangulation in a domestic setting, and to coercive control. If bail is granted the court must state its reasons, may set conditions, and may require you to wear a monitoring device. For some domestic violence charges, if the prosecution applies to review a decision to release you, the release is put on hold for up to three business days while the review is decided.
Which court, and what sentence to expect
The ordinary breach offence is dealt with in the Magistrates Court. The aggravated form, with a prior domestic violence conviction, is indictable but must still be heard summarily unless the magistrate decides you could not be adequately punished there or exceptional circumstances apply; the maximum on summary conviction is three years. In practice 99.9% of breach cases since 2012 were sentenced in the Magistrates Court, and 99.4% of people pleaded guilty at some stage.
The Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council's figures for breach of a domestic violence order as the most serious offence, 2016-17 to 2023-24:
| Outcome | Share of cases |
|---|---|
| Fine (the most common penalty) | 39.6% |
| A custodial sentence of any kind (including suspended and partly suspended terms) | 31.3% |
| Imprisonment to be served | 19.0%; average 6.7 months, median 6 months; 82.2% of prison terms under 12 months; longest 3 years |
| Imprisonment, people with no prior domestic violence history | 6.1% (52.9% received a fine) |
| Imprisonment, people with a prior domestic violence history | 30.9% |
Sentencing law adds two things. A domestic violence offence is treated as more serious unless there are exceptional circumstances, and since 26 May 2025 it is an aggravating factor that an offence also breached a domestic violence order, police protection notice, release conditions or another court order, or exposed a child. Whether a conviction is recorded is the magistrate's decision under section 12 of the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992, having regard to the nature of the offence, your character and age, and the effect on your wellbeing and work; a conviction that is not recorded still counts for any later offence.
A way out for a first breach: diversion, Brisbane only
The Domestic and Family Violence Diversion scheme operates only at the Brisbane Magistrates Court. An adult charged with a first breach of a first order, direction or notice, with no prior conviction for a breach or any other domestic violence offence, who is on bail, accepts responsibility for the facts in the police summary (which is not a guilty plea and cannot be used against them) and is willing to be assessed, can be referred to a program or counselling that usually runs about eight weeks. When the provider tells the court it is complete, the charge is dismissed. If the referral is revoked, the person must enter a plea.
What is new since 2025
- Police protection directions, from 1 January 2026. Police can issue a direction that protects the aggrieved for 12 months without going to court, where no order or direction between the two people exists or has existed, there is no domestic violence conviction in the previous two years, no weapon was used or threatened, and neither person is a child or a police officer. A police protection notice, by contrast, becomes an application to the court. Breaching either carries 120 penalty units or three years.
- Coercive control, from 26 May 2025. An adult who engages in a course of domestic violence against a partner or family member, intending to coerce or control them, where the conduct would be reasonably likely to cause harm, commits a crime punishable by up to 14 years' imprisonment. It applies only to conduct after that date. A court hearing the charge can also make a restraining order; breaching it carries the same penalties as breaching a domestic violence order.
- Not yet law. A Bill introduced into the Queensland Parliament on 17 September 2026 would add new offences for repeated breaches within 28 days, extend police protection directions to three years and abolish police protection notices. Until it passes and commences, the penalties above apply.
What to do now
- Keep to every condition of the order and of your bail from this moment, including no contact of any kind if the order says so, whoever makes the approach.
- Get the documents: the order itself with its conditions, the police summary of the alleged breach, and your notice to appear or bail undertaking with the court date.
- Do not discuss the allegation with the protected person, and do not give a police interview without advice. If police ask, give your name and address; you do not have to answer questions about the allegation.
- Get advice before your first court date, not at it. Legal Aid Queensland's duty lawyers are at the Magistrates Court on the day, and its information line is 1300 65 11 88, 8:30am to 4:30pm Monday to Friday. Call 1800 577 015 at any hour for free general legal information, or request a $295 consultation with a Queensland lawyer.
How Go To Court Lawyers can help
Our free line, 1800 577 015, answers at any hour. Jen, our AI legal information assistant, gives general legal information and takes your details; Jen is not a lawyer and does not give advice about your case. If you want advice, a 60-minute consultation with a lawyer who practises in Queensland is a fixed $295, by phone, video or in person. The lawyer can advise you before your first appearance, apply for bail, obtain and test the police evidence, negotiate with the prosecution, and present your circumstances at sentence. Requests are taken at any hour; how soon a lawyer can see you depends on who is available.
General information only, not legal advice. Updated 22 October 2026. Checked against the Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 2012, the Bail Act 1980, the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 and Regulation 2025, the Police Powers and Responsibilities Act 2000, the Criminal Code, Queensland Courts, the Queensland Police Service and the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council on 22 October 2026.