Stalked or Harassed in WA? Two Orders - Know Which One Is Yours

Transcript

Someone is stalking you, harassing you, or threatening you in Western Australia, and they are not family. The West gives you a legal fence, but it comes in two strengths, and choosing the right one is the first decision that matters. Get it right, and the process moves. Get it wrong, and you lose weeks. Here are the two. A misconduct restraining order covers the conduct that grinds you down without physical violence. Following, watching, repeated unwanted contact, intimidation, behavior that would reasonably offend or lead to a breach of the peace.

Where there has been actual personal violence or credible threats of it, the stronger violence restraining order applies instead. Nonfamily, both of them. Family situations run through a different system entirely. How applying works. You lodge in person at any magistrate's court registry or through the assisted lodgement section of the court's online portal. A misconduct order application carries a fee, which can be waived for hardship, and one honesty note that is different from the family system. For a misconduct order, the other person is told about the application before the first hearing.

There is no surprise order arriving in the night, so plan your safety accordingly. If police have not acted, remember two things about the West. First, stalking is a crime here, so keep reporting incidents and keep the report numbers because a pattern can turn a civil problem into a charge police will run. Second, these orders were designed for you to seek directly. A court weighs your need for protection against the other person's freedoms, and it is your evidence, not a police endorsement, that tips those scales. So build the evidence like it is your case because it is.

A running diary, dates, times, exactly what happened and how it left you, screenshots of every message and post, backed up, witnesses, named while memories are fresh, photos of any damage, police report numbers collected every time, and from you, nothing. No replies, no confrontations, no deleting. The contrast between their pattern and your restraint is the case. When the harassment is online, national doors open beside the West Australian ones. The e safety commissioner can compel platforms to remove seriously abusive content aimed at you.

And using a phone or the Internet to menace or harass is a federal crime carrying up to five years. Distance and anonymity protect these people less than they think. Immediate danger is always triple zero before anything else in this video. For the rest, pick the right order, lodge it properly, and let a disciplined file do the talking. If you want advice on which order fits your situation or help preparing the application, our hotline is free to call at any hour, anywhere in the state, and a consultation with a lawyer is a fixed price. The number is on your screen now.