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The Victorian government has rushed to introduce a bill in the wake of a “printing error” that impacted thousands of family violence intervention orders over five months.
From 15 November 2025, just over 12,000 family violence intervention orders were missing the words “the court orders that the respondent must not” due to a printing error, Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny said earlier this week.
According to Court Services Victoria (CSV), the error came to its attention on 4 March, and it took “immediate steps to rectify it”.
“A full post-incident review is underway,” CSV said in a statement.
“CSV acknowledges and apologises for the error. The safety of all affected family members was CSV’s priority as we remedied the issue.”
The approximate 12,000 family violence orders mostly came from the Magistrates Court, but a couple hundred were handed down in the Children’s Court, according to Guardian Australia.
The Magistrates Court apologised for the error in a statement and acknowledged it “may cause some concern for parties to the orders”.
The Department of Justice and Community Safety confirmed the orders are still valid and remain in place.
In response, the Victorian government planned to introduce the Family Violence Protection Amendment Bill 2025.
Kilkenny said the government is “acting out of an abundance of caution” to make sure respondents to the orders “comply with those orders, and perpetrators are held to account”.
“My focus is ensuring that an error like this is never repeated and stamping out the unacceptable failures that allowed it to occur.
“All options are on the table to ensure this never happens again,” Kilkenny said.
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Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
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