Mullen & Acken (No 2)

This matter came before Bennett J concerning applications by both the mother and the father regarding their children. The mother sought the immediate return of the children to her care in northern Victoria, sole parental responsibility, and the involvement of a school psychiatrist. The father sought to suspend the children's telephone and supervised face-to-face contact with the mother, regulate their communication through the independent children's lawyer with a right of veto, and obtain sole parental responsibility for himself. He also sought to engage a psychologist for therapeutic treatment of the children and himself, and for the outcome of the application to be explained to the girls by a family consultant.

The court was required to determine the appropriate orders concerning the children's living arrangements, parental responsibility, and communication with their mother, considering the father's request to suspend existing contact and regulate future communication. A key issue was whether the father's proposed alterations to the statutory shared parental responsibility arrangement were warranted. The court also had to consider the father's request for therapeutic intervention and the explanation of any court-ordered changes to the children.

In reaching its decision, the court considered the standard of proof in civil proceedings, referencing Lord Nicholls' discussion in *Re: H & Ors*. This established that while family proceedings are civil, the balance of probabilities standard requires that the more serious the allegation, the stronger the evidence must be to establish it. The court acknowledged that the inherent probability or improbability of an event is a factor in weighing probabilities, meaning more improbable events require stronger evidence for their establishment. The court ultimately made orders regarding the children's living arrangements and parental responsibility, and regulated communication between the mother and children, with the independent children's lawyer playing a role in the transmission of communications.