1. Starting proceedings
You must come personally to the Family Court to complete the standard Magistrate’s Complaint form. You may do this at the Protection Order Services Unit, on Level 1, Family and Juvenile Court Building. A Family Support Officer will be stationed there to help you with your application.

If you have any police or medical reports relating to your case, you should bring these with you. However, you do not need to have copies of such reports to file an application for a personal protection order.

As you are the person filing the Magistrate’s Complaint, you are known as the Complainant. The person against whom the Magistrate’s Complaint is made is the Respondent.

When you have completed and submitted your Magistrate’s Complaint, you will be taken before a Magistrate or District Judge to have it sworn or affirmed. To swear or affirm the Magistrate’s Complaint means that you confirm that the contents of what you have written in the form are true and correct.

It is a serious offence to include statements that you know to be untrue or incorrect in a sworn or affirmed Magistrate’s Complaint.

If you are unable to come personally to the Family Court to swear or affirm the Magistrate’s Complaint, you may go to any of the following places to swear or affirm your Complaint through a video-link facility:


Centre for Promoting Alternatives to Violence (PAVe)
Blk 211 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3
#01-1446
Singapore 560211
6555 0390

SAFE@TRANS
Blk 410 Bedok North Avenue 2
#01-58
Singapore 460410
6449 9088

Loving Heart Multi Service Centre
Blk 210 Jurong East St 21 #01-00
6897 4766

Syariah Court of Singapore
512 Thomson Rd
#04-00 MCYS Building
Singapore 298136
1800-2585378

If your application is in order, the Magistrate or District Judge will direct that a summons to the Respondent be issued.

You will have to pay the prescribed fee for the issuance and service of the summons.


2. Service
The Protection Order Services Unit will arrange for the personal service of the summons on the Respondent by a Court process server at the address provided by you in your Magistrate’s Complaint.

Please note that the summons cannot be served on a Respondent living outside Singapore.

If you fail to turn up on any of your Court dates, your application may be struck out. This means that you will have to file another Magistrate’s Complaint, and the same fees will apply. If you are the Respondent, your failure to turn up in court will result in the issuance of a Warrant of Arrest against you.

3. Your first Court date
Your first Court date will be a mention of your case in Family Court 1 before a District Judge. A mention is a short hearing. It usually lasts only five minutes. A District Judge may hear up to 30 or 40 mentions per half day session in Family Court 1.

At your mention, the Judge will:

• consider whether the parties should be referred for counselling with a professional Court counsellor;
• give orders on evidence—for example, for the disclosure of relevant documents such as police or medical reports;
• give orders on the filing of affidavits, if you or the Respondent have lawyers, or know how to prepare affidavits;
• determine how many days are needed for the hearing of your case, and fix trial dates accordingly.
  

4. Hearing in open court
Both parties will have to give evidence before a Magistrate or District Judge to prove your respective cases. This will be done in a trial in open court. If either party wishes to call witnesses at the trial, they should inform the District Judge of their intention during the mention in Family Court 1.

If you fear facing the Respondent in Court, inform a counsellor or one of the staff at the Protection Order Services Unit. It is possible to arrange for you to give evidence via video-link from another location.

The trial may last anything from an hour or two, to a few days, depending on the complexity of your case. The District Judge in Family Court 1 will assess this, and decide how much time to allocate to your case. At the trial, the proceedings will generally take the following format:

• The Complainant gives his or her documents to the Court, and takes the witness stand to give sworn or affirmed evidence.
• The Respondent may cross-examine the Complainant on what he or she has said.
• The Respondent gives his or her documents to the Court, and takes the witness stand to give sworn or affirmed evidence.
• The Complainant may cross-examine the Respondent on what he or she has said.
  

If either party is represented, the trial will be conducted by their lawyers. At the end of the hearing, the lawyers will present arguments on behalf of their respective clients.

The Magistrate or District Judge will then make the necessary orders. This marks the conclusion of the case.

If the Magistrate or District Judge has made a counselling order in addition to a personal protection order, your case will be fixed for review in Family Court 1 in three months' time.

5. Appeals
If you are not satisfied with the order, you may appeal to a Judge of the High Court.

If you wish to appeal, you must do so by filing a Notice of Appeal (Form 114) in the Civil Registry of the Subordinate Courts. The Notice must be filed and served within 14 days of the order. You must also provide security for the other party’s costs of the appeal in the sum of $2,000, if you are appealing against a Magistrate’s order, or $3,000, if you are appealing against a District Judge’s order. You may wish to refer to Order 55D of the Rules of Court for further details.

Please note that court staff cannot help you with the filing of your appeal papers. If you need a lawyer, or legal advice, you may find it helpful to refer to the General Information page on this website.