Receive and review further documents
You'll receive:
- Notice of Hearing of Application
- Any new affidavits from the applicant
- The Application Record Index
You will likely receive these documents at different times. The Notice of Hearing of Application must be filed and served on you at least 4 business days before the date of the hearing.
This document sets out the date and time of the hearing. Mark it in your calendar, you won't get any further reminders. It will also set out the length of time of the hearing and the orders the other person is seeking.
More affidavits
After the other person receives your documents, they may send you more affidavits. These are called reply affidavits. These documents must be served on you within 3 business days after they received your Application Response. Any new affidavits should contain only new information not included in the earlier affidavits served with the Notice of Application (Form F31).
Application Record Index
The other person must provide the court with a binder of all the material for the hearing, including your Application Response and your affidavits. This is called the Application Record. The other person must provide you with the index (table of contents) to the Application Record, no later than 4 pm two business days before the hearing. If the hearing is on Friday, you should receive the index by 4pm on the Wednesday.
If any documents are missing from the index
Read the index carefully to make sure that all the documents you want to show to the judge are included in the Application Record. (Some of your documents, such as the Response to Family Claim (Form F4), only need to be in the Application Record if you plan to refer to them.)
If something is missing from the index, tell the other person immediately, by fax or email if possible, and ask them to include the missing documents. Make a copy of this letter for the judge. Bring two extra copies of any missing documents to the hearing so that you can give one each to the judge and the other person, if necessary. Bring along the Affidavit(s) of Ordinary Service (Form F16) to prove that the documents were delivered to the other person and should have been in the Application Record.
Prepare an Application Record for yourself
You'll need:
- All the documents you received from the applicant
- All the documents you filed in your response
- The Application Record Index the other person sent you
- A ring binder large enough to hold all the documents
- Divider tabs
An Application Record is a loose-leaf ring binder, divided by tabs, that contains your information and evidence and includes a table of contents called an index. The other person is responsible for providing the Application Record to the court and for sending you a copy of the index.
It is recommended to make your own copy. This will help you to organize the information and evidence that you need in court, making it easier for you to follow the court proceedings because you, the judge, and the other person will all have the same materials, in the same order.
To make your own binder, follow the Application Record index the other person sent you, inserting all the documents (yours and the ones you received from the other person) in the same order as they're listed in the index.
If there are materials missing from this index, add them to the end of the index.
The Application Record can include draft orders, written arguments, lists of authorities (any case references, textbook, article, or statute you might use to support your argument) or a draft bill of costs. The Application Record must not include Affidavits of Service, copies of authorities (cases), or other documents unless the other person has agreed to you including these.