Astin & Harlow

The appeal in Astin & Harlow involved the mother, who brought a case against the father regarding parenting orders concerning their children. The mother alleged that the father had contravened the parenting orders on numerous occasions and sought leave to reopen virtually all parenting issues that had been resolved by consent. The Family Court judge heard nine of the alleged contraventions and dismissed them. The mother then consented to the dismissal of the balance of the allegations. The judge also dismissed the mother's application for leave to reopen parenting issues. The mother appealed the decision.

The legal issues before the court included whether the mother suffered procedural unfairness, whether the trial judge erred in accepting into evidence a letter and whether he placed undue reliance on it, whether the trial judge placed reliance on his recollections of evidence of a psychiatrist and social worker in refusing leave to re-open parenting issues, whether the trial judge erred by not receiving into evidence contact centre notes, and whether the trial judge did not have proper regard to the mother’s claims that she had been under duress when signing the consent orders.

The court found no error in the trial judge's treatment of the applications. The mother failed to demonstrate how further evidence would have affected the outcome of the case. The appeal was dismissed, and the mother was ordered to pay the father's costs of and incidental to the appeal. The mother's application for an extension of time within which to apply for leave to adduce further evidence was also dismissed.