Non molestation question

Hi

"If you challenge the Order and fail ( that is the court decides that the order was correctly made ) you may be liable for your wife’s solicitors costs"

Your rephrased question is not relevant to fighting the initial non mol application from your ex partner. When they apply for one, they put forward a statement and if you then disagree, you are entitled to challenge and a further hearing is held to review the facts, allegations, evidence etc.. Based on this the court will grant or reject the order. If you fail at this stage you do not need to pay for the other parties legal costs.

However, if after this you wish to 'appeal' further, then not only are there specific grounds you need to identify to do so but if you then lose then yes you may need to cover legal costs as ultimately you have failed in your grounds to appeal. However, you would only appeal based on a certainty that the original order was incorrectly made and not because you just disagree with it. It's rare that costs would be awarded and even then its based on means and each case is reviewed on its own merits.

As others have said, you need to look at whether you even want to accept or challenge the non mol initially, if it is likely to be granted based on the allegations and a lack of evidence on your part or an acceptance on your part then potentially you could consider undertaking, all of this needs to be considered alongside whether any non mol will prevent access to kids etc.

Hope this helps. 

Costs are very rarely awarded in these types of proceedings. I have never seen costs awarded in a fact finding hearing. That's not to say it's impossible but very unlikely. 

I imagine slapping won't be the only allegation. Often allegations are vague like there where it is difficult to provide evidence to defend.

Re evidence, you have to build a picture so that the courts do not believe it happened. Eg that you had a good relationship, or that it's not in your character or nature etc..eg what did the police say? If they dropped things then you could use this. 

Unfortunately it's not easy. If the allegations are found against you, then depending on your ex it can be difficult to see the kids.

Others on here are better at explaining how to draft responses and put together evidence. etc. Appreciate you can't afford a solicitor which makes things difficult as my advice is to get a little bit of legal advice for minimal cost, eg you could pay for a couple of hours with a solicitor (300 to 400) to advise you on this very question. However this may not be possible for you. 

Hope you manage to sort things, keep using this forum and asking questions for guidance. 

There is a guide on the Advicenow website about going to court when the other side has a lawyer and you don't - this may be helpful for you.  The Judge will ask what you have to say about her evidence.  You can refer to each part and refute it.  Make a note of what you want to say, keep calm throughout and don't interrupt the Judge or your ex however much you want to deny what she is saying.  You will have your turn.  The Judge may suggest undertakings during the process - you could even offer to accept them.

Often there is no hard evidence to say whether an incident happened or not which is why a fact finding hearing will take place. Based on the evidence available to the court, they have to decide the probability of whether the incidents happened or not. 

If you have any texts, emails, photos etc that refute her claims, you can use those as part of your evidence. If there are questions you can ask her (the judge will ask them for you) to try and get answers from her in your favour, this can also form part of your evidence.