Karen and Steve have been married for 18 years, they have two teenage kids and life in the COVID-19 especially has been a struggle.

Steve lost his job and hasn’t been able to find another and they are struggling on Karen’s salary with some pandemic and government support payments. One of their kids is doing okay with school remote-learning but the other is refusing to engage, has shut down and spends all his time on his x-box in a virtual world.

The cracks which already existed in their relationship exploded when Karen and Steve got into a heated argument with lots of yelling, and some pushing and shoving between them taking place.

Unfortunately, the kids were home and heard their parents arguing. The neighbours also heard all the noise. They called the Police who turned up at Karen and Steve’s home. Karen was really upset so the Police asked Steve to back a bag and leave the home to cool off and stay with a mate. The next day the Police call Steve and ask him to attend the station for an interview.
They interview him and tell him they plan to charge him with assault because Karen has reported that he punched her during the argument.

Karen has also made other allegations about Steve perpetrating family violence towards her during their relationship (emotional and physical violence) and also towards their son, yelling at him about his obsession with his x-box.

The Police serve Steve with a Family Violence Safety Notice noting their Application for an Intervention Order will be made on Karen’s behalf which means he cannot go home, see Karen or their kids, and he’s due in the Magistrates Court in the next few days.

At the first hearing of the Application for an Intervention Order, Steve is told that he will be charged with breaching the intervention order because he posted on Facebook that he was a “victim of the system” blaming Karen for all his current woes.

Steve now needs a lawyer who can help him with the potential assault charge, the breach of intervention order (which could lead to criminal convictions if proven), the intervention order and family violence allegations (which will be heard separately in the Magistrates Court) and family law matters (as the intervention order restrains him from seeing his kids) which will be dealt with the Federal Circuit and Family Court.