VIC Family Law Trial - Use of Audio Recordings?

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Dadsta

Well-Known Member
11 June 2018
27
1
124
Thank you kindly Nonfiction. I believe we do & was interested to have some outside & impartial views on this. Of course without knowing all facts & detailing this in to the smallest of nutshells I understand the difficulties of all advice received.

Unfortunately this is such a putrid & hostile case with the costs of having the mother adhere to the current Interim Order being of signifance financially. As I say to myself, the cost of wanting the best for my child unfortunately is the cost I have to pay.

Indeed I will keep this forum updated pre and post trial and I hope that others can make use of all the wonderful advice received from all of you fantastic people. Thank you for taking an interest in this my friend :)

Some very good comments here, but by the sound of it, you, your solicitor and your barrister appear to have everything covered. I wish you well with your case...if you get a chance, after it’s all over it’d be great to hear back from you how it all went.
 
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Been2Trial

Well-Known Member
12 July 2017
100
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I’ve been inundated with letters from the mother’s solicitor slamming me over putrid behaviours not only towards the mother but her family and the child’s daycare providers.

Sounds like our ex's had the same solicitor hahaha!

I encountered exactly this problem as well - the mother (and sometimes in company with her father) would intentionally engage in inflammatory or aggressive/intimidation type behavior at changeovers (such as attempting to force their way into my house under the justification that they were legally entitled as it was still currently in her title, despite me having sole occupancy, or doing and saying things with the hope of getting a rise out of me so they could point to it as an example to justify that criteria of their overall game plan).

We were also having significant issues on handovers back to the mother with our child often getting highly distressed and upset about leaving me - So I began discreetly filming all change overs with the same seemingly logical reasoning behind it. I figured if it was done discreetly so as not to be seen or noticed by the child and in a manner that wasn't intrusive or intimidating to the other party, it would seem to be a sensible and reasonable insurance policy against this issue that was clearly going to be part of their case strategy...

Nope... The courts were far more concerned about the fact that there was a need for this to happen than they were satisfied by the supporting evidence it provided.

In short, it was essentially seen as further evidence of ongoing conflict between the parents, which ultimately harmed my case instead of supporting it overall.

On a relevant point that is worth noting, the mother also engaged a private detective to have me covertly photographed and followed during this period too - and the judge was super unimpressed with them for that (Some really nice shots of me walking the dog! :p... the judge obviously recognized it as another of their intimidation tactics as well).

So heads up, if you're planning to file covertly taken surveillance materials as part of your evidence, then you probably want to make sure it contains some life changing stuff in it!

In the final orders, both parties were ultimately restrained from filming or otherwise recording future changovers.
 
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Been2Trial

Well-Known Member
12 July 2017
100
18
454
Hey Dadsta, just a heads up for your upcoming trial and interview with the independent expert if you have one... I see by some of your posts that you have a significant volume of material contained in your affidavits that is without question very valid evidence, but serves to present overall critical and negative allegations against the mother - Try and avoid talking about that for a second longer than you have to.

The reason being, they are obviously already well aware of what is contained in your affidavits and other evidence, so you can rest assured it will be taken into account by the judge and in any report that is produced from the independent expert - you making it a significant topic of discussion might be something that can be turned against you....

It happened to me. My ex had a significant drug history that spanned 20+ years and every chemical known to man that she had massively played down or failed to admit. Although she ultimately came unstuck under cross examination and the truth came out, I got myself caught in the trap of trying to ensure that the Independent Expert knew the real truth of her substance use and was taking it into account... which was ultimately used to justify the opinion that I still maintained a strong state of conflict and mistrust in the mother.

That can damage your case because it supports "conflict" and the as far as the courts are concerned, the less conflict between parents, the better the chances that they will be able to work together for the child.
 

Dadsta

Well-Known Member
11 June 2018
27
1
124
Hey Been2Trial - Thanks for your post! It feels as though it’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” type situation. My experiences are very similar, i.e the Mother and her family using dirty tactics at changeover in order to get a rise out of me. Common sense says that I want the court to see her behaviour for what it is in proving this with audio recordings.

Mostly, I don’t let their games get to me and over time I’ve been better at adapting to their crap by not responding at all. I question I pose is... With four allegations of abuse that have been proved wrong each and every time with my recordings... Do I include these in my Trial Affidavit? The exact words from the ICL were to cease this immediately (without any mention of the Mother’s allegations) in which I respectfully declined.

In your experience how much “say” did the ICL have at trial? I know for fact that he will not support my request of residency BUT the Family Report Writer’s & court appointed psychologist have stated that if her behaviour doesn’t change (it hasn’t, has actually got worse during interim orders) then the court must consider having the child live with me.

Not only this, as the Mother is refusing to pay her bills to the psychologist, I’m concerned the trial will be adjourned from hearing as he will not produce his final report until payment is made. His report is ordered and I’m certain this is a strategy to delays matters. Thoughts?


Hey Dadsta, just a heads up for your upcoming trial and interview with the independent expert if you have one... I see by some of your posts that you have a significant volume of material contained in your affidavits that is without question very valid evidence, but serves to present overall critical and negative allegations against the mother - Try and avoid talking about that for a second longer than you have to.

The reason being, they are obviously already well aware of what is contained in your affidavits and other evidence, so you can rest assured it will be taken into account by the judge and in any report that is produced from the independent expert - you making it a significant topic of discussion might be something that can be turned against you....

It happened to me. My ex had a significant drug history that spanned 20+ years and every chemical known to man that she had massively played down or failed to admit. Although she ultimately came unstuck under cross examination and the truth came out, I got myself caught in the trap of trying to ensure that the Independent Expert knew the real truth of her substance use and was taking it into account... which was ultimately used to justify the opinion that I still maintained a strong state of conflict and mistrust in the mother. That can damage your case because it supports "conflict" and the as far as the courts are concerned, the less conflict between parents, the better the chances that they will be able to work together for the child.
 

Been2Trial

Well-Known Member
12 July 2017
100
18
454
The judge in most cases from what I was told will generally take on board the reccomendations in the Single Appointed Expert report and the ICL's proposed Minute Of Orders to form a starting point for the Final Orders. By aligning his orders fairly closely with each of theirs, his decision is backed up and supported by the opinions of two independent parties who are seen to be representing the best interests of the child in their roles.

That's not to say he must or will always stick as close to them as he can. In my case for instance, the recommendations of the independent expert, the orders sought by the ICL and my own proposed final orders were closely aligned - whilst there were minor differences between the three of us in the timeline for the step ups of increasing time with me, we all ended up at 50/50 shared parenting time as the final custody orders.

The judge however really took some personal dislike toward some of the details of my personal history it appears - and he decided that these were reason enough to limit me to 5 out of 9 nights per fortnight during school term and 50/50 of a school holidays. I am needless to say a little bit pissed off and frustrated that he has used issues that he and I seem to have personal differences in opinion on, which are totally irrelevant to my ability to raise my daughter, as grounds to take those 2 nights from me during the school term... It doesn't seem fair, but that's what I have to work with now.

My final orders sought were intentionally copied word for word in as many sections as possible from the ICLs final proposed orders. Keeping a commonality between our orders with only minor differences in parenting time schedules meant that of the three parties standing before the judge, two of us were pretty much on common ground. The theory being that this might hopefully give the judge somthing easy to start working with.

Depends on the Judge I would say, but the one on my trial made it pretty clear that he was happy to allow all parties to maintain a dynamic attitude toward the final orders we sought (basically we could change them as we saw fit throughout the trial and he would accept the final versions at the closing day). So there were some changes to the original ICL orders during the trial, but it wasn't drastically different.

But as far as calling the shots right now goes on somthing like this recording issue you have, the ICL has no power to stop you from doing it - they are simply another lawyer acting for another party in the case and just like your ex wife's lawyer, they can request anything they like - it doesn't mean you have to listen.

That said though, do you want to get the ICL off side? Probably not, but as long as you are able to show that the child was in no way affected by your decision to maintain the recordings and you can demonstrate that you have at all times kept your cool and maintained a calm, rational demeanor that has your childs best interests in mind, even if your ex is behaving like a shaved baboon - you should stand up to scrutiny on that if its brought up in cross examination.

So if it were me, I'd keep recording. But Keep it discreet, keep it hidden. You're barrister will advise how/if/or/when it should be produced as evidence, but I am almost certain he will keep them in the back pocket to be thrown in right at the last possible moment if the right circumstances present themselves.

Damn wall of text I've typed on a phone, gonna post this now, sorry if there's any grammar or wording errors, I'm not even going to bother trying to proof read all that haha

Hey Been2Trial - Thanks for your post! It feels as though it’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” type situation. My experiences are very similar, i.e the Mother and her family using dirty tactics at changeover in order to get a rise out of me. Common sense says that I want the court to see her behaviour for what it is in proving this with audio recordings. Mostly, I don’t let their games get to me and over time I’ve been better at adapting to their crap by not responding at all. I question I pose is... With four allegations of abuse that have been proved wrong each and every time with my recordings... Do I include these in my Trial Affidavit? The exact words from the ICL were to cease this immediately (without any mention of the Mother’s allegations) in which I respectfully declined.

In your experience how much “say” did the ICL have at trial? I know for fact that he will not support my request of residency BUT the Family Report Writer’s & court appointed psychologist have stated that if her behaviour doesn’t change (it hasn’t, has actually got worse during interim orders) then the court must consider having the child live with me.

Not only this, as the Mother is refusing to pay her bills to the psychologist, I’m concerned the trial will be adjourned from hearing as he will not produce his final report until payment is made. His report is ordered and I’m certain this is a strategy to delays matters. Thoughts?
 

Been2Trial

Well-Known Member
12 July 2017
100
18
454
I can tell you with absolute certainty that as fathers, we are set up to fail in this system the whole way though. Not only will your ex now stand to reap the benefits of maintaining the current status quo for the childs care arrangements when you get it in front of a judge, she wont get so much as even a disapproving look from the judge when you are before him either. Reverse that situation though and say it was you who (quite within your legal rights) went and did the same - you'll probably be lucky to get 1hr of supervised visits in a centre each month.

My ex did the same thing... part of me wishes I had gone against my lawyers advice that early on in the event and taken her back. It would have been a game changer for how things played out in my case. But was the risk of me being punished with a no contact order genuine and significant enough to take the chance? I didn't go and do it... so yes.

Like Sammy often preaches - until the trial is finished, when it comes to any communication or interaction with the ex... you better stock up on lube and learn to bend over and take it with a smile... The courts make fuckin' mountains out of molehills from so much as the slightest disagreement between you and take one guess who's going to cop the fall out from it? Two guesses and one of them isnt her :p

Oh and I'm sure I dont need to say it, but if you havent already, make sure that your final orders include an intensive drug testing regime.

I would suggest ongoing testing for 36 months from the date of the orders which comprises of a random urine drug test to be submitted within 24hrs of either parties request once per month (12 per year) and hair follicle testing for both mother and father to be submitted every 60 days (4 times a year). If a positive result is returned by either party then the other party is at liberty to relist the matter on an urgent basis and a change of care arrangement may result.

If there is even the slightest bit of truth to what you have described your ex's drug use and and mental history as, then it's highly unlikely she is going to make it through that unscathed. But on the bright side, if she does, then you can be happy knowing that's one less worry you will have to contend with!
 

Nonfiction

Well-Known Member
17 May 2018
111
13
414
Victoria
In your experience how much “say” did the ICL have at trial? I know for fact that he will not support my request of residency BUT the Family Report Writer’s & court appointed psychologist have stated that if her behaviour doesn’t change (it hasn’t, has actually got worse during interim orders) then the court must consider having the child live with me.

Here’s a fun “fact”...even an ICL who has appeared oppositional/against you at every turn and at every court appearance raised issues about you/your behaviour to the judge...with the right ammo...can still do a 180 backflip before trial...and visa versa.

Not only this, as the Mother is refusing to pay her bills to the psychologist, I’m concerned the trial will be adjourned from hearing as he will not produce his final report until payment is made. His report is ordered and I’m certain this is a strategy to delays matters. Thoughts?

Now here is something you should be communicating to the ICL.
 

thatbloke

Well-Known Member
5 February 2018
335
42
714
Earth
Here’s a fun “fact”...even an ICL who has appeared oppositional/against you at every turn and at every court appearance raised issues about you/your behaviour to the judge...with the right ammo...can still do a 180 backflip before trial.

As you well know I am living proof of that... In the end they wrote the words "XXX would be better off with Dad who can care for his needs" It might have took almost 2 years of jumping over ICL set hurdles and 2 years of "well I won't support change" but it did happen in the end, at the last minute....and I have the letter proof from them framed in my lounge room :-D

(i do not have it framed in my lounge room)

Dadsta, it can happen
 

Nonfiction

Well-Known Member
17 May 2018
111
13
414
Victoria
As you well know I am living proof of that ...

And that you were...most definitely!! You have no idea how much effort and strategy had to go into changing residence for this exceptional father (with an ex who was dangerous to their child) and the obstacles he was against...and how he fronted up to the court as a litigant in person and fended off an entire court against him at times. Until the end!
 

sammy01

Well-Known Member
27 September 2015
5,154
721
2,894
Totally agree....
For years there was crazy stuff. She would cause all sorts of grief at change overs and when she did she'd get emails from me had stuff like - Thanks for the dicsussion at change over. It was really productive and I'll take onboard your recommendations.
OR
The children really seem to be doing well. I think it is really good that we're getting better at having good lines of communication between the houses.

She would not write down abusive stuff. So when she wanted to move 8 hours away and tried to make the case that she had to leave to get away from the constant abuse she had nothing...