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In this week’s video, special counsel Craig Turvey discusses evidence gathering in your family matter and, in particular, a document called a ‘Notice to Admit’.
My name’s Craig Turvey and I’m a special counsel at the Cooper Grace Ward Family Law Team. And today, I’d like to talk to you about evidence gathering in your family law matter and in particular, a document called a ‘Notice to Admit’.
One of the problems in most family law matters is that it’s only at the very end of a court hearing where all the evidence is before a judge, witnesses are cross examined, all the evidence is out there that you finally get to see everyone’s case in its entirety. That’s a problem, of course, because it’s right at the end of the process. People may have spent tens of thousands, or sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars to get there. It might take 18 plus months to get to a final hearing. And anything you can do to sort of short circuit that process and gather evidence at an earlier stage is only a good thing.
Given that witnesses can usually only be cross examined at a hearing, there’s only very limited circumstances where you can cross examine people at an interim hearing, a really useful document is a Notice to Admit, which is a document where you ask specific questions of the other party or you produce certain documents and they have to confirm whether they’re accurate or true, or deny whether they are. That can be helpful, particularly, for example, where there’s allegations of domestic violence or things that are contentious that people don’t like to respond to. So, for example, what will often happen is you’ll write in correspondence the other side. You’ll say, our client says you committed these particular acts on these particular days, and if it doesn’t suit the other side, they just don’t reply or you’ll put it in your court material and they just will sort of skirt their way around it. A Notice to Admit is very specific. They have to specifically accept or deny the facts and there can be consequences, serious consequences if you deny something and it later turns out to be true. So, it can be a really good way at an early stage of putting specific questions to another party. And even if it doesn’t resolve the entire matter, at least narrowing the issues a lot.
If you have any questions about evidence gathering or about preparing a Notice to Admit, please don’t hesitate to contact me or one of the other family lawyers at Cooper Grace Ward.
This publication is for information only and is not legal advice. You should obtain advice that is specific to your circumstances and not rely on this publication as legal advice. If there are any issues you would like us to advise you on arising from this publication, please let us know.
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