Hi there,
Long story short, my wife and I recently separated due to an accusation made against me (I won't go into details but the accusation was untrue, however I wasn't allowed to return to the family home). I was told that I should only have supervised visits (the supervisor being my wife) to see my children at any location other than the family home until an investigation concluded.
This was the case for a few weeks until a week went by where my wife wasn't allowing me to see the children and then suddenly, out of nowhere, I received an interim intervention order. The IVO was basically entirely untrue and twisted around to make me look bad, but even if taken at face value seems very weak and not really justifying an IVO (in my opinion anyway).
No actual accusation of violence at any time in the last 12 months was made (there was an accusation about an incident from over 12 months ago where actually she was the aggressor but where neither of us contacted the police) and I have strong evidence that we had been entirely civil and reasonably calm in text messages recently, which was the only form of communication my wife and I had since I had left the house weeks earlier.
In short, there should not have been any reason to think I had been or would imminently be a danger to my wife or my children, but somehow she convinced the police officer who made the application on her behalf - I suppose by playing the emotional victim card rather than showing any actual evidence of any threats.
My question is, is there anything I can do to challenge the IVO in the short term? Can I, at the mentions hearing, argue anything at all? Can I ask that my children be taken off the IVO at that stage even if my wife remains on it (because that's my primary goal), or can that only be done at the full contested hearing?
My hearing is almost 2 months away which is a really long time to be denied access to my children (I was the primary carer of the elder child until recently) and my understanding is that I won't have any opportunity to do anything at the first hearing, which will essentially be the opportunity for me to either agree to the IVO, agree to an undertaking (which according to the Vic Legal Aid website, is very unlikely when the police makes the application), or contest it.
I understand that if I contest it, it will get sent to the 'back of the queue' and I might have to wait another 2 months before an actual hearing?? That will mean because of a frivolous IVO, I will have been prevented from seeing my kids for 3-4 months.
And that's assuming I can even demonstrate that there's no basis to the IVO and my wife is using it as a weapon against me.
I'm confident I can demonstrate it, but it seems like the whole IVO system seems to revolve around the rights and needs of the applicant rather than the respondent... I'm just really sad and worn down by the whole thing.
Long story short, my wife and I recently separated due to an accusation made against me (I won't go into details but the accusation was untrue, however I wasn't allowed to return to the family home). I was told that I should only have supervised visits (the supervisor being my wife) to see my children at any location other than the family home until an investigation concluded.
This was the case for a few weeks until a week went by where my wife wasn't allowing me to see the children and then suddenly, out of nowhere, I received an interim intervention order. The IVO was basically entirely untrue and twisted around to make me look bad, but even if taken at face value seems very weak and not really justifying an IVO (in my opinion anyway).
No actual accusation of violence at any time in the last 12 months was made (there was an accusation about an incident from over 12 months ago where actually she was the aggressor but where neither of us contacted the police) and I have strong evidence that we had been entirely civil and reasonably calm in text messages recently, which was the only form of communication my wife and I had since I had left the house weeks earlier.
In short, there should not have been any reason to think I had been or would imminently be a danger to my wife or my children, but somehow she convinced the police officer who made the application on her behalf - I suppose by playing the emotional victim card rather than showing any actual evidence of any threats.
My question is, is there anything I can do to challenge the IVO in the short term? Can I, at the mentions hearing, argue anything at all? Can I ask that my children be taken off the IVO at that stage even if my wife remains on it (because that's my primary goal), or can that only be done at the full contested hearing?
My hearing is almost 2 months away which is a really long time to be denied access to my children (I was the primary carer of the elder child until recently) and my understanding is that I won't have any opportunity to do anything at the first hearing, which will essentially be the opportunity for me to either agree to the IVO, agree to an undertaking (which according to the Vic Legal Aid website, is very unlikely when the police makes the application), or contest it.
I understand that if I contest it, it will get sent to the 'back of the queue' and I might have to wait another 2 months before an actual hearing?? That will mean because of a frivolous IVO, I will have been prevented from seeing my kids for 3-4 months.
And that's assuming I can even demonstrate that there's no basis to the IVO and my wife is using it as a weapon against me. I'm confident I can demonstrate it, but it seems like the whole IVO system seems to revolve around the rights and needs of the applicant rather than the respondent... I'm just really sad and worn down by the whole thing.
