Northern Territory Consolidated Acts Northern Territory Consolidated Acts(1) Before hearing an application for a personal violence restraining order, the Court must refer the protected person and defendant for mediation under the Community Justice Centre Act .
(2) However, the Court must not make a referral and must proceed to hear the application if it is satisfied it is in the interests of justice to do so, including, for example, because:
(a) there is a history of violence committed against the protected person by the defendant; and
(b) there has been a previous attempt at mediation in relation to the same matter and the attempt was not successful.
(3) A referral stays the proceeding until a report is given to the Court under subsection (6).
(4) The referral is taken to be an application under section 13 of that Act for the provision of mediation services for a dispute between the protected person and defendant.
(5) The Director of the Community Justice Centre must accept the application.
(6) The Director must give the Court a written report on the outcome of the mediation or attempted mediation.
(7) The Court may refer the matter back to the Director with directions about the application.
(8) In deciding the application, the Court must take a report of the Director into account.