Rule 404.Case Review

Timing. Case review is scheduled within 15 days of the granting of an ex parte order or expedited scheduling, and otherwise within 22 days after the petition is filed.

Apart. The parties are kept entirely separate, with all communication passing through a mediator or counsel. In a proceeding about fear of another person, that is not a courtesy.

What it is for. Four things: whether the petitioner or counter-petitioner wishes to proceed; whether personal jurisdiction over the respondent has been established; whether the parties have received copies of all petitions, amended petitions and cross-petitions; and whether they agree to resolve the petition on negotiated terms.

Remotely. Unless the court instructs otherwise, parties and their attorneys take part by video, though anyone may appear in person and should do so if they lack access to or familiarity with the technology. Taking part remotely implies consent to receive the documents distributed at the review electronically.

Not turning up. A petitioner who fails to participate has their petition dismissed. A served respondent who fails to appear gets an evidentiary hearing the same day. Where a respondent who has not been served is absent, the review is rescheduled — the consequence attaches to notice, not to absence.

The forthwith hearing. Where the parties agree to a consent order, where the respondent asks to be heard about an ex parte order, where a properly noticed respondent fails to appear, or where issues exceed what the mediator can handle, the case goes at once to a judicial officer for a hearing with limited testimony.

On consent, the judicial officer reviews the terms, adjusts the order so it reflects what the parties actually agreed, and satisfies itself they are agreeing knowingly and voluntarily. On default, where service was proper and the court finds abuse, it may award what it could have awarded after a contested trial — with limits. A petitioner who cannot fairly present their case in that compressed format may make an offer of proof and be given a contested trial instead. Child support may be awarded by default only where personal jurisdiction sufficient for a support order exists. And against a nonresident over whom personal jurisdiction has not been established, the award is limited to protective relief and custody where the interstate custody act permits — or the court may direct further attempts at service.

The pattern is consistent: protection is available on the thinnest jurisdiction, and money is not.

Interim orders and waiver. A respondent may ask to be heard on the continuation or terms of an ex parte order, but one who obtains a continuance of case review waives that demand. More broadly, a party granted a continuance — or whose availability, or their lawyer's, prevents timely scheduling — waives the right to a timely trial and the right to object to the interim order being extended. Delay and the protection of an interim order are traded against each other, and the party who causes the delay is the one who pays for it.