Stalked or Harassed in the NT? No Fee. One Form. One Affidavit.

Transcript

Someone is stalking you, harassing you, or threatening you in the territory, and they are not family. A neighbor, a workmate, someone from around town who will not leave you alone. The territory's answer is a personal violence restraining order, and the practical news is good. It costs nothing to seek, and the paperwork is two documents. A personal violence restraining order is built for people outside domestic relationships. It reaches harassment, including regular unwanted contact. It reaches stalking, following, or watching or hanging around you on repeated occasions to cause you harm or fear.

It reaches property damage too. If the person is a partner, an ex, or family, the domestic violence order system applies instead, and we cover that separately. How you start. Lodge the personal violence restraining order form at the local court together with an affidavit, which is simply your sworn account of the facts, what happened, when, and why you fear it will continue. There are no court fees for this. None. The person you name must be over fifteen, and the court takes it from there. If police have not acted, hold two truths at once.

Police in the territory carry heavy loads, and their thresholds sit where the criminal law sits. But this order was designed so that you do not need them to begin. Keep reporting incidents anyway and keep the reference numbers because patents build criminal cases. And lodge your application meanwhile because that track answers to your evidence, not their queue. The affidavit is only as strong as the file behind it. Keep a diary as things happen, dates, times, exact words. Screenshot every message and post, and back them up beyond one phone. Name witnesses early, and in territory towns, there usually are some.

Photograph any damage. Keep every police reference number, and give them nothing back. No replies, no confrontations, nothing deleted. And when the harassment arrives through a screen, the national doors open as well. The e safety commissioner can force platforms to take down seriously abusive content aimed at you. And using a phone or the Internet to menace or harass someone is a federal crime, carrying up to five years. Distance in the territory is real, but online, no one is far from the law. One rule above all of it. Immediate danger means triple zero every single time.

For everything else, the territory hands you a no fee application, a court that listens to sworn facts, and a process that starts when you decide it starts. If you would like help preparing the affidavit or advice on your situation tonight, our hotline is free to call at any hour, wet season, or dry, and a consultation with a lawyer is a fixed price. The number is on your screen.