Preparing the woman
When a woman who has been subjected to abuse begins her family court case, you will want to prepare her for the realities of court.
Assume that the abuser will minimize and deny the abuse
No matter how neutral and credible her evidence is about the abuse, her ex-partner and their lawyer will make substantial efforts to discredit it. In the face of this, she will benefit from the assistance of an advocate and therapist to help her remain strong.
Get legal advice about the evidence
A woman should seek legal advice about evidence to determine:
- If the information is relevant to the legal issue with which she is dealing
- The types of evidence that can be introduced
- When the information should be disclosed (i.e., in the court document that starts the case or at a later stage)
- If the information is credible enough to be considered persuasive
- If medical and/or psychological information is available, does its importance outweigh the potential invasion of the woman’s privacy on other matters in her medical and therapeutic records that may be disclosed within the court proceeding?
- How the information will be presented to the court
Safety plan
When a decision is made to introduce evidence of abuse to the court, the woman’s safety plan should be reviewed and, if necessary, revised.
Prepare for opposition from court officials
As we discussed in the section on Family court culture, in some cases, a woman may be met by strong opposition from her lawyer about presenting evidence of abuse. No matter how strong the evidence may be, the judge may not believe it or may dismiss it as irrelevant.
Evidence of abuse a woman can gather
You can suggest to a woman where she may find evidence:
If the abuser has been involved with the criminal law system:
- Evidence of previous criminal convictions for assault or other violent conduct arising during the relationship
- Evidence that the abuser has been charged with a criminal offence, even if there is no conviction yet
- Transcripts of 911 calls she has made to the RCMP/police.
- Copies of any past RCMP/police occurrence reports.
Photographs of injuries, which must be attached to an affidavit that identifies the circumstances under which the injuries occurred
Information from third parties, which must be attached to an affidavit to be acceptable as evidence in court:
- Information reported to or observed by school officials, doctors, other individuals, counselling groups, neighbours, etc. The more neutrality there is, the better (i.e., avoid relatives and friends if possible).
- Medical reports, including doctor’s letters, hospital records and reports from counsellors.
- Information from previous or subsequent partners of the abuser.
- Information from child protection authorities, if they are involved with the family.
Collect evidence of post-separation harassment:
- Keep a record with the date, time and details of incidents. The woman can use these in her affidavit and at trial to refresh her memory if she must testify.
- Because digital communication (including text, email, phone, app and web-browsing history) leaves a record, usually a lot of evidence can be collected from these sources.
- For example, a woman’s phone history will show how often the abuser called her, and she can take screen shots of any threatening texts or degrading posts they made about her on social media. This evidence needs to be attached to an affidavit.
Presenting a history of the abuse
Encourage the woman to keep these suggestions in mind when documenting the abuse:
- Be specific with such details as times, locations and names of those with supporting information.
- The most immediately recent information (for example, what led to the court proceedings) should be first, after which the history should be presented in chronological order, beginning at the start of the relationship.
- Describe events and the effects they had on her and her children.
- Her documentation should focus on the legal issues she will be raising in her case, including arrangements for the children and safety-related issues.
- Be direct and give factual information.
- Be careful to avoid overrepresenting or underrepresenting the facts. Some women who have been abused in a relationship tend to underrepresent the facts due to their own minimization and denial, with the result that the court doesn’t understand the seriousness of the situation. On the other hand, exaggerating the facts can damage a woman’s credibility.
Where there is a substantial amount of information to present, it may be helpful to summarize the abuse and then attach a chart that provides the specifics. The chart can
- Summarize the type of abuse by category (physical, sexual, financial, emotional, etc.), when it happened, whether children were present, the impact on the children, and so forth
- Provide a visual image of the history of the abuse allows the reader to quickly review the extent of the abuse without reading through lengthy paragraphs