Domestic Violence is not just limited to physical violence of one party against the other. It can also include emotional and psychological abuse, such a calling someone names and verbal abuse, even if it is written down. It is not ok for someone to continually message you without your consent, make repeated derogatory remarks about you, or make derogatory remarks about your culture, identity or religion.

Protection from Domestic exists to protect you from the fear or experience of domestic violence and the law seeks to protect you from people who seek to cause you that fear. If you have been engaged in a series of unwanted text messages from someone who would fall into the definition of a person who was in a relationship with you, as defined by the Domestic Violence laws, then you may be able to seek protection from that person engaging in further texts or messages being sent to you.

If you were also sending messages to the other person, the law will consider who is in more need of protection, based on the following list of characteristics:

• Female;
• Children;
• Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people;
• People from a culturally or linguistically diverse background;
• People with a disability (mental or physical);
• People who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex; or
• Elderly

It is important to keep all of the messages and not to delete anything you may have sent, in order to try and make the other person look bad. The messages must be considered as part of the whole conversation.

We make Family law matters crystal clear

If you are receiving text messages of domestic violence and are seeking advice, please call us on 07 2113 4645 to schedule your initial consultation with our DV specialist for $250.