Question: “We’re only at the initial stages of court. OP has submitted their response to my initiating application and there are some blatant lies in there. They haven’t responded to any of the risks or abuse I raised. At what point do I respond to their lies? Do I at all?”
Answer:
1. Be prepared. When you write an Initiating Application affidavit, make sure you counter any potential allegations up front. If you think the other party is going to accuse you of something and it isn’t true, raise it in your affidavit and provide evidence.
2. Pick your battles. If they say something vague like, “he’s always nasty to everyone”, you might just want to leave it. If they make a specific allegation like “she hit me with a cricket bat on the 9th of June at 11am in front of the children”, you would definitely want to give your side of the story.
3. Be specific. Give the date/s, time/s, place/s, who was there, what happened, your / their response and any follow up referrals (to police, doctor, child protection, etc)
4. Provide evidence. Get a screenshot of the sms, provide a hospital report, attach school attendance reports.
