Challenging a police protection direction (PPD)

The single point that matters most

A PPD is not a criminal conviction and it is not a court order. Breaching one is a criminal offence.

So even if you believe the direction should never have been issued, or the conditions are unfair, unworkable or based on wrong information, none of that permits you to ignore it while you challenge it. It may give you grounds to challenge the PPD. It gives you no grounds to breach it.

Key points on challenging a PPD

• Absent an extension, a police review application must generally be made within 28 days after the written notice stating the grounds for issuing the PPD is served on the respondent. That may not be the same day you were first told about the direction.
• Only certain people can apply for police review. A named person has limited grounds, being removal of their name or a change to conditions relating to them.
• A police review is decided on the circumstances that existed when the PPD was issued. You cannot argue on a police review that things have improved since.
• A court review can be started at any time while the PPD is in force. It is filed in the Magistrates Court on the approved forms and there is no filing fee.
• Applying for court review ends any police review that has been started but not yet decided.
• Neither a police review nor a court review automatically stays the PPD.
• Even if a PPD is later revoked or set aside, you can still be charged for an alleged contravention that occurred before that happened.
• If you are facing, or may face, a contravention charge, get advice early.

The aggrieved cannot consent to a breach

Respondents are regularly charged after informal contact that felt fine at the time. An apologetic text message. A phone call about changeover. Turning up to collect belongings.

The aggrieved cannot give you permission to breach a PPD. Once it is issued, it is not theirs to waive. An invitation to make contact does not make the contact lawful.

The safest approach is to behave as though every condition applies exactly as written, whatever the other person says.

If the conditions are blocking practical arrangements around housing, property, changeover, work or study, the answer is not to work around them. Get advice and consider a review or a variation.

A reality check before you start

Reviews and appeals are difficult. We set out the processes below, but we do not want to overstate the prospects of success without a clear error or a genuinely arguable basis for setting the direction aside.

These provisions are new. There is not yet a substantial body of decided cases telling us what will and will not persuade a court. The legislation gives some guidance, and beyond that only time will tell.

Get advice on your own circumstances before deciding which pathway, if any, to use.

Your options at a glance

1. Police review. An internal review by a senior reviewing officer. Best suited to correcting clear errors or reconsidering the decision on facts that existed at the time of issue.
2. Court review. A review in the Magistrates Court. This moves the whole subject matter into court. It can result in the PPD being set aside. It can also result in a protection order being made.
3. Appeal. If you are aggrieved by the court’s decision on the court review, you may appeal to the District Court within strict time limits. You cannot appeal a PPD directly to the District Court.

Option 1: police review

A police review is a statutory safeguard built into the scheme. It is conducted by a reviewing officer, typically a senior sergeant or inspector, who must be authorised to conduct PPD reviews and must not have been involved in investigating the incident.

Who can apply

• the respondent;
• the aggrieved;
• an authorised person for the aggrieved, being an adult authorised in writing; and
• a named person, with limits.

A named person’s rights are narrower. They can generally seek review only to have their name removed from the PPD, or to change conditions that relate specifically to them.

The time limit

The prescribed period is 28 days after the written notice stating the grounds for issuing the PPD is served on the respondent. The police commissioner can agree to a longer period, but do not assume an extension will be granted.

What the reviewer can and cannot consider

The review is decided on the circumstances that existed when the PPD was issued, including circumstances that existed then but were not known to or considered by the issuing officer.

The reviewing officer cannot consider events after the PPD was issued. So a police review is not the process for arguing that the parties have reconciled, that there has been no trouble since, or that the conditions have become inconvenient.

What happens once a review starts

As soon as practicable after the review starts, police must notify the respondent and the aggrieved and invite submissions within a stated period of at least 7 days. Police may also invite a named person to make submissions.

Police can ask for further information. You are generally not compelled to provide it. If criminal charges may follow, get advice before providing a statement or a detailed version of events, because what you write in a review can be used elsewhere.

How quickly it must be decided

The reviewing officer must decide the review within 28 days after the request or application is made, unless a court review is commenced first, in which case the police review ends.

That timeframe cuts both ways. If police ask for submissions and you intend to make them, get them in within the time requested. Delay may cost you the review.

Possible outcomes

The reviewing officer may:

• confirm the PPD with no changes;
• revoke it and issue a new PPD, with the same or different conditions or named persons;
• revoke it and issue a police protection notice, which pushes the matter into court;
• revoke it and apply to a court for a protection order;
• revoke it and take other appropriate action; or
• revoke it and take no other action.

If the PPD is revoked on police review, it is taken never to have been issued and does not form part of the respondent’s domestic violence history. A prosecution can still be started or continued for an alleged contravention that happened before the revocation.

Does it suspend the PPD?

No. The direction remains enforceable throughout. A person can be charged with contravening it while the review is pending.

Option 2: court review in the Magistrates Court

A court review is a different animal. It is an independent process in the Magistrates Court, and it pulls the entire issue into a court proceeding. That may or may not be what you want, so get advice on the pros and cons in your circumstances before filing.

Who can apply

While the PPD is in force, the following may apply:

• the respondent;
• the aggrieved;
• an authorised person for the aggrieved, being an adult authorised in writing; or
• a person acting for the aggrieved under another Act.

A key difference from police review is that a named person is not generally listed as an eligible applicant, although named persons may still be involved in the proceeding.

When and what it costs

A court review can be applied for at any time while the PPD is in force. There is no filing fee.

The forms

• All applicants use Form DV59A, Application for Court Review of a Police Protection Direction.
• If you are the respondent to the application and you want the outcome to include a protection order naming you as the aggrieved, you also file Form DV59B, Respondent Application for Protection Order.

If you are represented, your solicitor will usually prepare the forms and supporting material and advise on what is realistically available to you.

The timetable after filing

1. The clerk of the court gives a copy of your application to the police commissioner as soon as practicable.
2. Within 1 business day, or as soon as practicable, the police commissioner must file key documents in court, including a copy of the PPD and the written notice stating the grounds for issuing it.
3. The court must list the matter for hearing at the earliest opportunity and no later than 14 business days after the commissioner files those documents.
4. Police then serve the filed documents on the applicant, the other eligible parties and each named person.

The process is designed to move quickly. Assume the PPD remains enforceable throughout unless the court orders otherwise.

What the court is actually deciding

Once the court review is filed and the commissioner files the required documents, the PPD itself is treated as an application for a protection order, with police as the applicant and the same aggrieved and respondent. The court then applies the usual domestic violence order principles.

If the respondent’s application seeks a protection order against the aggrieved, the legislation treats that as a cross application, and the court can hear both together.

Possible outcomes

In addition to the orders the court can make on a protection order application, it can:

• set aside the PPD;
• order that the PPD ends on a stated day; or
• dismiss the application, so the PPD continues unaffected.

If the PPD is set aside, it is taken never to have been issued and does not form part of the respondent’s domestic violence history. As with police review, a prosecution can still proceed for an alleged contravention before that point.

If the application is dismissed, another court review application by the same applicant can only be brought with the leave of the court.

Does it suspend the PPD?

No. Filing does not stop the PPD operating. If you need an urgent change, speak to a solicitor about what practical options exist and how to get the matter before the court quickly.

Police review or court review?

There is no single right answer.

Police review may suit where

• there is a clear and demonstrable factual mistake that existed when the PPD was issued, such as wrong address details, a wrongly named person, or conditions that do not match the risk profile;
• you want a fast internal reconsideration based on information that existed at the time but was missed; or
• a named person wants to be removed or wants conditions relating to them reconsidered.

Court review may suit where

• you want an independent decision maker to assess the evidence and the appropriateness of protection or of particular conditions;
• the dispute is about the underlying allegations or the risk assessment rather than a technical correction; or
• you need orders that police cannot make on a PPD, or you accept the matter belongs in court.

Sequence matters. If you commence a court review while a police review is on foot but undecided, the police review must be discontinued. You can, however, run a police review first and then move to a court review if the outcome does not go your way.

Option 3: appeal to the District Court

If you are aggrieved by the Magistrates Court’s decision on the court review, the Act provides a right of appeal.

Who can appeal

A person aggrieved by certain court decisions may appeal. In most cases that is the person who sought orders the court was not prepared to make. It includes a decision on an application relating to a police protection direction made in the court review process.

Which court, and by when

The District Court hears these appeals. An appeal is started by filing a notice of appeal, which must generally be filed within 28 days after the decision under appeal is made.

If the decision was made in your absence, the 28 days runs from the earlier of service of the decision on you, or the day a police officer tells you the decision exists.

You must also serve a copy of the notice on other persons entitled to appeal and on the police commissioner, and file a copy in the court that made the decision. The District Court can extend the filing period. Do not rely on it.

Does an appeal pause the decision?

No. As with every other pathway, starting an appeal does not automatically affect the operation of the original decision.

How appeals are decided

Appeals are usually decided on the evidence and proceedings that were before the Magistrates Court. In theory the District Court can order that the appeal be heard afresh in whole or in part. In practice that requires special circumstances, because courts are not inclined to let parties introduce new evidence at each step.

The District Court may confirm the decision, vary it, set it aside and substitute another decision, or send the matter back to the Magistrates Court.

Charged with contravening a PPD? Treat it as two matters

A review, police or court, is about whether the PPD should remain in force and on what terms. A contravention charge is a criminal prosecution about whether you breached a condition at a particular time.

They relate to the same document. They are not the same proceeding. Challenging the PPD does not end a contravention charge, and successfully defending a contravention charge does not affect the validity of the PPD.

Subject to your own circumstances, our general suggestions are:

1. Comply with the PPD strictly while any review is pending.
2. Preserve evidence: messages, screenshots, call logs, social media, location data, CCTV and witness details.
3. Write down the critical dates: when you were first told about the PPD, when you received the document, and exactly what you were told about the conditions.
4. Get advice before taking part in a police interview or providing a written account for a review.
5. If the conditions are unworkable because of children, housing or work, get advice about the lawful pathway rather than acting in a way that may amount to a breach.

Where this leaves you

PPDs are designed to be fast, practical and immediately enforceable. That is the point of them, and it is why the review pathways sit behind rather than in front of the direction.

If you are a respondent on a PPD, assume every condition is enforceable from the moment it is issued, and get advice before doing anything that could be characterised as contact or approach.

We can advise urgently on compliance, on whether police review or court review is the right pathway, and can appear at a court review hearing or on a contravention charge. See our page on police protection directions for the earlier parts of this series, covering what changed on 1 January 2026 and how police issue a PPD.