NSW What to Do During Family Court Trial?

[John D]

Hello all - my first post so would appreciate some help prior to an upcoming trial for final orders.

Background:

I am self-represented due to a meagre income and my ex is going for full custody of children for our two girls aged 3 and 5. She has a large legal team and has delayed this getting to family court for approx 3 years now. We have a trial next month in the family court where she is the applicant and she is pushing for supervised access for only a few hours per month.

I reside in Darwin and supervised access is exceptionally difficult. I am pushing for weekend access on the basis there has never been any violence or abuse.

That is the background and below is my question...

My wife has introduced vast amounts of information, including character assassinations, printed emails that do not match my copies and a host of other information.

Do I need to call her out on all of this information when it is my turn to question or do I need to question her only on the documents and spoken words that she puts forward while sworn in at the trial?

In short, are all of the affidavits considered "introduced evidence" and need to be questioned or do I just concentrate on what she says on the stand while sworn in?

Thanks

 

[sammy01]

Your case should be about why the kids need to spend time with their dad. Forget the character assassinations. Let her do that, but don't copy her poor style

 

[John D]

Sammy,

Yes, my intent is to concentrate on what's best for the children, however, if she introduces over 100 pages of evidence by way of affidavit, should I respond to all of these points by asking if there is any evidence to support the allegations?

or

Should I just concentrate on what is mentioned by her on the witness stand?

A friend told me what is in the affidavits is not deemed introduced to court and therefore I should ignore it but since there are so many allegations I feel I need to address them rather than be silent on them.

My friend (ex-policeman) assures me if they are not introduced. The judge will not take them into account in the decision-making process.

Cheers

 

[AllForHer]

In the lead-up to a trial, each party must submit a list of evidence in chief which they wish to rely on during the hearing.

This can potentially include all previous affidavits, but most parties just file a single affidavit for trial, which means you only need to address the trial affidavit.

In the event the other party does wish to rely on previous affidavits, you'd be better off preparing to question them anyway.

 

[John D]

Thanks All for Her,

Other side has submitted a vast amount of docs over the past years and they have not yet provided a list of evidence they wish to rely on.

I'm still interested to hear opinions on what constitutes "introduced evidence".

Is it what the applicant and her witnesses say on the stand as my ex police friend says or is it all of the documents submitted to court?

While I will be prepared for everything, my police friend tells me to concentrate on what is said on the stand and not discuss other matters unless of course it is advantageous for me to introduce it.

Regards,