Care & Protection
8. The Final Hearing
Authors: Staff Legal Eagle
Firm / Chambers:
Last updated: 29 Jun 2015
- A hearing is when the court puts aside time to listen to everyone’s side of the story and their evidence.
- Your case may be listed for a day or more depending on how many people need to give evidence.
- Most of the evidence in these cases is written in a special format called an affidavit (sworn statement). Each person that writes an affidavit is called a witness.
- At the hearing the parties or their lawyers (if they have one) are given a chance to ask witnesses questions about what they wrote in their affidavits. This is called cross-examination.
- The court will listen and record all the evidence of all the parties in the case and also all the arguments that are made by the lawyers.
- The magistrate will then make a decision about what is best for the child and make final orders. The magistrate must also give adequate reasons for their decision.
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