An Expedited Order (EO) is emergency protection the court can grant quickly, where there is imminent danger of family violence, without waiting for a full hearing. It exists for the situation the ordinary process cannot reach in time: a person needs protection now, and the days it would take to arrange a hearing with both sides present would leave them exposed. Made under Part 7 of the Women’s Charter, an EO holds the position until the substantive application can be heard properly.
If you are in immediate danger, call the police on 999. An EO is a legal tool, not a substitute for the emergency response that keeps you safe in the moment. For guidance and support, the National Anti-Violence and Sexual Harassment Helpline is 1800 777 0000. This guide explains what an EO is, how it fits with a Personal Protection Order, how long it lasts, what breaching it means, and how to apply urgently. It sits alongside our overview of family violence and protection orders.
What an Expedited Order does
The protection order framework under Part 7 of the Women’s Charter is designed to stop family violence, yet the main order, the Personal Protection Order, is granted only after both sides have had the chance to be heard. That is fair, and in most cases it works. But fairness takes time, and some situations do not have time. Where there is imminent danger, waiting for a full hearing could mean waiting while the harm you are trying to prevent actually happens.
The Expedited Order answers that gap. It is an emergency order the court can make quickly, and, because the danger is immediate, it can be made without the respondent necessarily being heard first. That is an unusual step in law, where normally no order is made against someone before they can put their side. The court accepts it here because the alternative, in a genuine emergency, is to leave a person unprotected. The trade-off is that the EO is temporary and provisional, not the final word.
The threshold for it reflects that gravity. An EO is not granted simply because a relationship has soured or because a hearing feels far off. It is aimed at situations where the danger of family violence is genuinely imminent, where the risk is present and pressing, not merely possible at some point. That is a high bar by design, because the order does something unusual in restraining a person before they have been heard. Where the danger is real but not immediate, the ordinary Personal Protection Order route, with both sides present, is the proper path.
How an EO relates to a Personal Protection Order
It helps to see the two orders as a sequence rather than alternatives. The Personal Protection Order is the substantive, longer-term order, granted after the court has heard from both sides at a proper hearing. The Expedited Order is the interim measure that protects you in the interval, from the moment danger is pressing until the PPO application can be decided.
In practice, you can seek an EO as part of, or alongside, a PPO application. The EO covers you now; the PPO process then runs its course, and at its hearing the court decides whether to make the full order. The EO is the emergency bridge; the PPO is the destination. How the main order works, who can apply, and what it can require is set out in our guide to the Personal Protection Order. In some situations the court can also order the person to stay away from the home, which is dealt with in our note on the Domestic Exclusion Order.
How long it lasts and why service matters
An EO is temporary by design. It runs for a limited period, and the court can extend it, but it is never meant to be permanent. Its whole purpose is to bridge the gap to the PPO decision. Once the substantive application is resolved, the EO has done its job.
There is a practical point that catches people out: an EO must be served on the person it is made against before it takes legal effect. The order protects you in law, but the person bound by it has to be given it for it to bite. This is why serving the order promptly matters, and why the court process handles service as part of granting the order. An order sitting unserved is not yet doing the work it was made to do.
What breaching an EO means
An order granted to protect against family violence is not merely a strong request. Breaching it is a criminal offence, and it can lead to arrest and prosecution. That is what gives an EO teeth: the person it is made against faces real legal consequences for ignoring it.
If an order protecting you is broken, your first concern is always safety, not procedure. In an emergency, call 999. Once you are safe, report the breach so it is on record and can be acted on. Keeping a note of what happened and when helps, because a documented breach is one the authorities can respond to. What to do in the aftermath is covered more fully in our guide on how to report family violence.
How to apply urgently
You apply for protection to the Family Justice Courts, and where there is imminent danger you can ask for an Expedited Order as part of, or alongside, a Personal Protection Order application. The court has processes designed to be used quickly and, if necessary, without a lawyer, precisely because the people who need them are often applying under pressure and alone.
But hold the priorities in the right order. If you are in immediate danger, the application is not your first step. Safety is. Call the police on 999. The court process protects you going forward; the police protect you now. Once you are safe, or if the danger is serious but not immediate, the National Anti-Violence and Sexual Harassment Helpline on 1800 777 0000 can help you understand your options and point you towards support and, where needed, a safe place. You do not have to navigate this alone.
An Expedited Order cannot undo what has happened, and it is not a guarantee against someone determined to breach it. But it is a fast, real legal shield for the most dangerous moments: the stretch between recognising you are in danger and the day a court can hear the full case. If that describes where you are, get to safety first, then use it.
