Evidence

By and large evidence submitted in my divorce by my wife, and admittedly myself is ireleant to finances. I plan on adressing this matter as soon a the hearing begins....after allowing my wife's barrister a short rant which I know she will do.

However...

Regardless of the relvance.

Is evidence (assuming it is relevant) permitted if it is taken from my private mobile phone, in a situation whereby I left my phone unattended and neglected to lock it?

>>Is evidence (assuming it is relevant) permitted if it is taken from my private mobile phone, in a situation whereby I left my phone unattended and neglected to lock it?

No, such evidence is not permitted (assuming it was a phone solely used by you and not used jointly with your wife). It is information to which you had the reasonable expectation of privacy. It is not information to which your wife is entitled.

Thank you. That should help shut them down early on.

Is there a "formal" phrase I should use, in the case where they attempt to introduce such evidence?

Also...I am just filtering through 700 pages of documents. Again, I could push back at the size of the bundle but i want this done, and most of their pages are simply not relevant to finances.

Another question....during cross examination, how do I respond to such questions which are not relevant to a financial argument, and don't fit in the realms of "behaviour which it would be unreasonable for the court to ignore". Can I just state in response to the question..."That is not relevant". Or ASK the judge to decide on the relevance?

I am aware, I previously permitted emotion to enter into my S25 statement. Do I prepare an ADDITIONAL Narrative Statement for the final hearing? Is this in the same format as the S25 statement?

My intention is to go in with a spreadsheet of the current position, shut down any emotional outbursts or attack, and try to assist the judge in seeing that there is no reason to depart from equality, with a clean break. (what is the formal term for a clean break order?)

Also, how do I respond to evidence presented which is not relevent.

for example, my wife has provided photographs of her with various bruising. (I completely deny being responsible for any of this, unless it was incurred while pushing her away from me in self defence).

Regardless, this argument is not relevent to this hearing. There is significant weight placed on this in her documentation. Even if the judge dismisses the evidence, or appears not interested...the judge is human. Seeing someone suffer bruising which they allege is caused by the other party, can no doubt incur a human reaction. What is the best way for me to deal with this.

AGAIN...I deny any intentional involvement. I say intentional because I am aware of one occasion, when I had broken my collarbone cycling; My arm was in a sling while I awaited surgery, My wife chased me around with a broom handle intent on striking my shoulder. As she raised her weapon, I pushed her away, and she stumbled into the kitchen table. I expect this to be one of the incidents.)

I appreciate these are not relevant, however the judge is human.

In my wife's S25 statement 50 out of 90 paragraphs have nothing to do with finances, and are purely character assassination attempts. Most of the other 40 are questionable.

She goes on to submit 89 pages of photographic evidence.

This includes
1. photographs of medication although she has provided no sick note or prescription.
2. Photographs from my personal mobile phone taken when I left it unattended,
3. bruises with no context which she alleges I caused,
4. messages sent from me to her, expressing a desire to get back together and seek counselling
5. various messages between me and our children
6. messages from my friends berating her. (them to me)
7. items she left behind when she moved out of the FMH, some of which I sold as I was expecting the house sale to complete (it didnt)

none of this is relevent to a financial hearing. I don't get how a professional law firm can sanction anything like this.

Once I identify evidence and is inadmissible, should I write a letter to her solicitor advising them? And keep a copy of my email for court?

Should I advise the court ahead of the hearing?

Her section 25 which is mostly "I should get more than half because he is a bastard"...I am assuming that is just a matter for dealing with in court?

A solicitor can only give advice. Clients can and do ignore advice. Also, it has to be said that sometimes it is not a solicitor who actually has conduct of a particular matter. Sometimes it may be someone quite junior or inexperienced.

In our final hearing, tomorrow and friday, my wife and I have both been allocated time for evidence and cross examination.

Oddly, she has 1 hour to provide evidence, while I have 30 minutes allocated.

Alternatively, she is to be cross examined for 1.5 hours vs me enduring 2.5 hours.

My question is....What the heck do i say during my evidence? Is it basically reading out my S25? (ish)

....My S25 when I wrote it was (less of than hers) but still an emotional account. On the other hand, I have produced a position (spreadsheet) along the lines of the ES2 and openly, honestly, and accurately (I think) depicting the full situation. Even to the point of her coming out of it with the greater share. (as long as i get a clean break)

So is that basically what I am doing? Reading my position statement to thew court? Or redacted S25 (removing emotional outbursts)

Thanks.

Also I really need to know...am I able to object when she starts her....he is a bastard rant. It quite literally could go o for hours. I hope the judge will stop it but if they don't, can I object?

This type of hearing is about being asked questions. Answering questions does not usually give much opportunity for rants. The judge will stop anything irrelevant whick looks like going on too long.