Hearings and Trials in Family Court

There are different types of hearings in California Family Court. A Request for Order (RFO) hearing or Order to Show Cause (OSC) hearing is a hearing generally lasting no more than 15 minutes. The majority of the evidence and argument should be in the pleadings (the request and response) and the judge will make interim or temporary orders at that hearing. Generally, third party witnesses and evidence are not permitted in a regular RFO or OSC hearing. If you have witnesses and additional evidence you want to present, you may want to request an evidentiary hearing (Family Code section 217).

An evidentiary hearing is a hearing with testimony (questioning of the parties or other witnesses). If you file an RFO, or are responding to an RFO, and you want to bring witnesses, you will want to include a witness list and a formal request for a hearing pursuant to Family Code Section 217 with your motion or your response to make sure the judge will allow it. A judge can allow testimony and evidence at a regular hearing, but they don't have to.

The Trial is essentially your final hearing that will include testimony and evidence, and result in final orders. Trial is your world series. This is the time when the judge makes orders on all the issues that could not be resolved by agreement.

When preparing for trial you first want to make sure you have complied with any orders made by the judge or in the local rules for your county. Examples of common orders are deadlines for filing and serving trial documents, and filing an updated income and expense declaration, or serving Final Disclosures. Final Disclosures are the same forms you completed with your preliminary disclosures, but with totals based on the time of trial as opposed to the beginning of the case.

Domestic Violence Restraining Order Hearings actually follow trial guidelines in that you will be expected to give testimony, call witnesses, and present evidence.

Payne Law Group

Huntington Beach Custody Lawyers