The County Court held that a Magistrate's decision to strike out a family violence intervention order application as frivolous under Rule 6.02(a) of the Magistrates' Court (Family Violence Protection) Rules 2018 was not attended by legal, discretionary, or procedural error. Brief reasons were adequate in the context of a busy magistrates' court where they conveyed in broad terms the path of reasoning, namely that the circumstances giving rise to contact between the parties had ceased and future family violence was unlikely. The Court confirmed that s 65 of the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 permits a Magistrate to inform itself in any way it thinks fit, and that striking out an application does not require a full contested hearing on sworn evidence.
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