The safety of victim-survivors is an an ethical matter: negotiating violence the civil protection order context

In this chapter, we approach the family violence protection order process as
an example of a broader set of problems that legal practitioners and legal systems must grapple with in working around gender-based violence. Our approach is informed by a series of questions, including: Whether the physical and psychology safety of victim-survivors is — or should be thought of as — an ethical issue? How do practices in one jurisdiction (the civil context) potentially relate to and impact another (the criminal context)? And are reforms of some kind necessary? To address these questions, we draw on insights from related but discrete areas including work on ethics in negotiation and dispute resolution, work on the role, skills and knowledge of lawyers in family violence matters, and work on mediating family violence matters in the family law context. We propose a new standalone rule of ethical conduct for lawyers in these civil contexts. This chapter is the first that we are aware of to look at legal ethics in the family violence protection order context and provides one tangible idea for reform that could advance safety in the context of sustained high rates of violence against women in Australia and growing calls for urgent systemic reforms.