Our client was in the midst of an acrimonious divorce, in which his ex-wife was playing every possible legal angle to make his life difficult. Her latest practice was to complain of restraining order breaches, leading to our client being charged with seven alleged offences, the pettiest of which included attending his daughter’s netball games. When we were engaged, we immediately identified that five of the charges were doomed to fail, as the clauses allegedly breached were clauses of the Family Court issued parenting orders, not the Magistrates Court issued restraining order. With respect to the remaining two charges, we identified a positive defence for one, and determined that the prosecution would have difficulty proving the other.
We made a submission to the prosecution in which we brought their attention to these deficiencies. After two months, we received a two line response, advising that all charges would proceed. The month of trial arrived and the half expectant email arrived the afternoon before the trial was to commence advising “the prosecution will discontinue all charges tomorrow”. Our client was both relieved that justice had prevailed and frustrated that justice had taken so long to prevail, the latter emotions easing on learning of the significant costs award made by the court in his favour.
