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There are manda­to­ry report­ing laws in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry which apply to all adults, includ­ing lawyers. These laws are an excep­tion to the duty of con­fi­den­tial­i­ty which we also must follow.

This means that our staff must make a manda­to­ry report if they receive infor­ma­tion which leads them to believe that:

• A per­son, includ­ing a child, has caused, is caus­ing, or is like­ly to cause, seri­ous phys­i­cal harm to some­one they are in a domes­tic rela­tion­ship with. This includes his­toric sex­u­al assaults
• The life or safe­ty of a per­son, includ­ing a child, is under seri­ous or immi­nent threat, because domes­tic vio­lence has been, or is about to be committed
• A child is expe­ri­enc­ing phys­i­cal, psy­cho­log­i­cal, or emo­tion­al abuse, neglect, oth­er exploita­tion, or is exposed to phys­i­cal violence
• There is any sex­u­al activ­i­ty of a child under 14

A manda­to­ry report does not need to be made when:

• A manda­to­ry report has been made already to the Police
• The vic­tim was being removed to a safe place and a report was going to be made after the vic­tim was safe
• Seri­ous or immi­nent threat to life or safe­ty of any per­son may result if a report is made