VIC Contesting a Police Intervention Order?

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victor v

Active Member
13 July 2019
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Unfortunately, I ended up with an intervention order issued by the Police on the basis on an incident that happened 6 weeks ago based on a false allegation from my 11-year-old.

Police called me one day while it was a normal day and issued a Safety Notice. I agreed to accept an IVO on the hearing date without any admissions, exempting my kids, which was rejected by the police. So I have been issued with a no-contact interim intervention order.

The following are also mentioned in the safety notice:

There is also mention of me being physically abusive on the kids recently and showing controlling behaviours and verbally abusive on the AFM without any dates.

In terms of history, there were mentions about 3 family violence incidents, the latest one was in 2009. Police turned up and none of them progressed any further as I am not the aggressor and there is no evidence.

I would really like to contest the IVO as the incident mentioned with the kid was completely false and I was the person who has been physically abused on the day. I was never ever physical with kids, including being physical to defend myself. I do have evidence of recordings on the incident with the 11-year-old but I am not sure if they will be valid in court.

A neighbour witness can also be available, proving that the story cannot be woven without doubt as they saw us at the time of the incident. While the mother-in-law witnessed my agony on the day, I am assuming she will not give any evidence in my favour. I am guessing the police should have tried to get evidence on this with no luck.

Other than that occasion and normal parental heated discussions with children off and on, the relationship with the 11-year-old girl and the 17-year-old boy is very constructive and I usually spend decent the time to nurture the kids to do well in studies as well as responsible citizens.

Now I have this no contact interim intervention order with AFM and kids. While I pleaded the judge to grant me access to the 17-year-old, who is in a tough VCE year, it was rejected by the AFM.

DHS says the two kids don't want to see me now, possibly brainwashed by the AFM.

My questions are:

- Should I contest the IVO on the deferral hearing due in a couple of weeks?
- What are the implications of me contesting the case when I approach the Federal Court for parenting orders in the coming weeks? AFM rejected my requests via a lawyer to even meet the kids once.
- Would DHS help in any way convincing the AFM to meet my kids as I sent a request to DHS to liaise with AFM to catch up with kids in a short meeting?

I hope you all will be part of my journey to keep me strong as I am innocent and been a victim of this trend around families with financial motives by women assisted by the family lawyers. The AFM from what I know over decades of marriage could not have done anything like this without the legal firm helping her to make a false case against me.
 

Rod

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Once the other side obtains a lawyer, then you probably should as well, especially if DHHS is involved.

Remember that absent family court orders, in these situations a man is effectively guilty until proven innocent.

If in Vic and you want legal assistance, contact me.
 

victor v

Active Member
13 July 2019
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Thanks. You mean to say it is better I don't drag it to the final hearing and have the IVO in place with some access to children on the deferral day. This way I can go to the family court for parental orders with better prospects.

About lawyer to deferral hearing while the other party will not need it as the police prosecutor is arguing on her behalf, is there still some value to having a lawyer to negotiate the terms of IVO on the deferral day.

Also is there any means to present my point of view to the police before the date of the deferral hearing as the only interview the Police had with me is the recorded interview that they made on the day when I was served the safety notice.
 

Rod

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Thanks you mean to say it is better I don't drag it to the final hearing and have the ivo in place with some access to children on the deferral day. This way I can go to family court for parental orders with better prospects.

Possibly yes.

About lawyer to deferral hearing while the other party will not need it as the police prosecutor is arguing on her behalf, is there still some value to have a lawyer to negotiate the terms of ivo on the deferral day.

Maybe. An undertaking is an option.

Also is there any means to present my point of view to the police before the date of the deferral hearing as the only interview the Police had with me is the recorded interview that they made on the day when I was served the safety notice.

Yes, you can ask, and the police will likely refuse.
 

IoM

Active Member
6 October 2018
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For what it's worth, don't contact the Police, keep your mouth shut and only discuss specific details with legal counsel. If you have a great relationship with your kids, then fight for them, but only you know the answer to that question.

If you can afford a lawyer, it's a no brainer, have them attend every hearing. The initial shock of it all is hard to deal with, and there will be many emotions involved, but for now, bury them and focus on funding a lawyer and fighting the IO. GL
 

victor v

Active Member
13 July 2019
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For what it's worth, don't contact the Police, keep your mouth shut and only discuss specific details with legal counsel. If you have a great relationship with you kids, then fight for them, but only you know the answer to that question. If you can afford a lawyer, it's a no brainer, have them attend every hearing. The initial shock of it all is hard to deal with, and there will be many emotions involved, but for now bury them and focus on funding a lawyer and fighting the IO. GL


Thanks for the tip. My line of thinking about telling all to the Police is this: There is nothing for me to hide. Police from what I had done so far cannot file an assault charge on me. They will not find any evidence except the statement from the 11-year-old. It is the kid's word against mine. I am assuming Police will not take the extra trouble to somehow prove me guilty nor will they completely ignore while I am sure they will not take the extra time finding witnesses to prove my innocence. I understand the caution that we need to use if we talk that the Police might use my statements to go against me.

If the police don't want to back off on an IVO that they took, the easy escape for them is to continue with the IVO for a year but given that there is no history of any family violence against the kids with any proof (while the young one lied) I am hoping kids will be exempt from the order which is all I need.

DHS, however, will continue to go against me taking the kids words for granted and might give me the negative points. Will the police go with the DHS opinion. At the least, I am hoping that me liaising with the police via a lawyer might counter the DHS push against me.

I am starting to think a lawyer can do the talking for me with the police before the deferral hearing and somehow get the kids out of the IVO or even have the IVO with some access with the kids. The no contact IVO is costing me an arm and leg both time and money to go through the lawyer/DHS to initiate any communication for agreement with AFM.

Question here is: Can a lawyer help to liaise with the Police to get me some form of agreement before the deferral hearing or should I engage the lawyer to negotiate on the day.

Once I get access to the kids given my rapport with the kids which has always been good except for the brainwashing from AFM recently, the kids at that ages (while I will never specifically ask the kids to speak to the AFM) will speak to the AFM to make sense that they will need some access to their dad and not blow away pool money on lawyers.

About parenting orders and family matters if some conciliatory attitude is created by kids on the AFM, that it is in the best interests for all of us to move on, the AFM I am hoping might settle for some parent time with dad instead of spending 20-30k together for getting parental orders. Also, it might help avoid 50-100k spent together to lawyer fees to settle financial matters. I am ok to settle for 50:50 while I built most of the wealth for the family and also taken on substantially larger parental responsibilities including their education over the last nearly 18 years.

One question here is: Who pays for what in relation to legal fees. Do the legal fees come out of post-separation funds from individual parties rather than the pool money? (I am assuming the pool includes all assets on the day of separation)

To detail further on this where the lawyer fees will come from. Does the lawyer spend come from the post-separation funds? For e.g, if we had 200k in the pool and a 50:50 split giving us 100k each. If I spend 20k on lawyer fees and the AFM spends 50k on lawyer fees. Will I get the 100k from which I pay out the 20k and the AFM gets the 100k from which the AFM pays out her lawyer fee. Kindly clarify.
 

Rod

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Can a lawyer help to liaise with the Police to get me some form of agreement before the deferral hearing or should I engage the lawyer to negotiate on the day.

Yes

Who pays for what in relation to legal fees. Does the legal fees come out of post-separation funds from individual parties rather than the pool money. (I am assuming the pool includes all assets on the day of separation)

Comes from each parties funds. Often if the only asset is land/house then both sets of lawyers place caveats over the property and arrange to have funds from a sale paid into a trust account and lawyers get paid before the money is handed to the respective parties.

Contact me if you need help. We have both criminal and family lawyers who can help.
 
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victor v

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13 July 2019
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A quick question: Given that it is an internal family matter with family violence, and as the other party is lying on an incident that happened, can I use the voice recording ton what has happened on the day including the voice of the witness be used as evidence for me to prove that the allegations against me are false?
 

Tim W

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victor v

Active Member
13 July 2019
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What do you mean Tim? Can be used or cannot be used to refute false allegations?. The daughter was advised at the time of the incident that she is hitting me and I am recording this conversation. I have the 8-10 minutes recording of the ordeal I was going through including the witness trying to stop her. All this to protect myself is not allowed and that is the only incident quoted for issuing an IVO.