Filing Notice of Appeal in Family Court - need help proof-reading the grounds

[bpr323]

Hi, I need some help with writing legally sound grounds of appeal from final parenting orders made in the Family Court.
No "weight" grounds - just errors at law, wrong principles, errors of fact and plainly unjust.
I'm not a total "newbie" and have read tons of case law on BarNet Jade. Unfortunately I'm currently unemployed and can't afford hiring a sharp lawyer/barrister experienced in appeals.
As an example, the trial judge rejected my application for a new Family Report and insisted instead we update (for the cost of $14K) an Expert report which is over 5 years old now.
I see this as failing to apply the principles of Less Adversarial Trial ("the trial is anticipated to be less costly ..."). And is it valid for him to base his decisions on a 5 year old report (child was 3.5 yo then and almost 9 now)

 

[GL1001]

Was your trial ordered to be a less adversarial trial?

Why would appointing a second joint expert be cheaper than having an updated first joint expert report?

You dont usually get two joint experts, unless theres something seriously wrong with the first (bias). You could have appointed your own adversarial expert to challenge the joint expert.

How could anyone possibly help you draft grounds of appeal without reading the judgment to know if there are any errors of law?

 

[bpr323]

Hi GL1001, the FCOA has Family Consultants who are FCOA employees and conduct interviews and prepare Family Reports pro bono, as opposed to Experts (psychologists) who fall into 2 categories - a) those on the court's "panel" who work on a rate fixed by the court, and b) external experts who charge whatever they want, e.g. $14K as in my case.
You're quite right reg help with drafting NoA w/o reading the judgment, but my problem is that English is my 2nd language and there are some legal areas I can't find case law precedents for, e.g.
1) is it lawful for trial judge to make a set of orders for "special occasions" (e.g. Christmas) for one party - then put an "unless" clause which negates these orders by allowing the other party to take the child away on an overseas trip in the same period and prescribe time compensation for the first party?
2) the ICL interviewed the child and subpoenaed evidence from psychologist, but neither the outcome of child interviews, nor records from psychologist have been disclosed - should I subpoena the ICL to obtain these and adduce as further evidence?