Chapter 3: Court Operation

This chapter outlines the roles and powers of judicial officers. It outlines various procedural guidelines applicable to hearings in the Children’s Court. It then sets out in considerable detail what happens in Court hearings, including summaries of various rules of evidence and procedure. It continues with a list of the 12 statutes most frequently cited in the Children’s Court and a summary of a leading Victorian case on the principles of statutory interpretation.

The Chapter goes on to set out the obligation of judicial officers to give explanations and reasons for their orders and discusses what is required in judgments as well as how judgments may sometimes be amended by operation of the ‘slip rule’. It sets out the circumstances in which costs may be ordered in Children’s Court proceedings and subsequently enforced if unpaid. It concludes by summarizing the various avenues of appeal from a decision of the Children’s Court and by outlining the circumstances in which a question of law may be reserved by the Children’s Court for determination by the Supreme Court.