Protection orders easier to get - judge

It is easier than ever for battered women to get a protection order from a court, contrary to reports it is getting harder, the Family Court head says.

Responding today to reports that protection orders were becoming harder to get, Principal Family Court Judge Peter Boshier said judges would grant protection orders if there was evidence they were necessary.

The High Court had made it clear the rights of the order's respondent "should not be compromised" when orders were made, he said.

Research showed it had become hard to convince a court to grant a protection order, Women's Refuge was reported today as saying.

In that research Waikato University community psychologist Neville Robertson found judges may be less willing to grant protection orders, if the applicant didn't have an on-the-spot police order.

But Judge Boshier disagreed, saying protection orders would be made "if they are clearly justified, regardless of what the police do".

"That said, we welcome police orders because they will afford protection initially without requiring victims to come to the court to obtain orders in the first instance," he said.

More and more orders were made by judges immediately, with 86 percent of applications approved in 2007 compared with 81 percent in 2000.

The total number of orders made had fallen in the past decade but the court was "proportionately making as many orders as it always has, when the number of applications is balanced against the orders granted", he said.

"It is not correct to say that it is hard to convince the court to grant protection orders...It is easier to get a protection order without notice than ever before."

- NZPA