Oral hearing: when required

Oral hearing: when required

Oral hearing: when required is a typical question of Swiss family and procedural law. For the legal assessment, what matters is not buzzwords or personal attributions, but the established facts, the relevant legal basis and the concrete effects of the requested or ordered measure.

Courts must distinguish between parties' submissions, documented facts, evidence and their own findings. An application does not yet prove the factual prerequisites for it. Conversely, a relevant, substantiated fact must not be disregarded solely because it was submitted by a party.

In family law, the best interests of the child are central in matters concerning children. At the same time, procedural guarantees apply, such as the right to be heard, inspection of files, a comprehensible reasoning and an appropriate evaluation of the evidence. Interferences must be suitable, necessary and proportionate.

A good legal documentation therefore specifies the date, document type, author or official role, the content of the specific action and its procedural status. It avoids motives that are not substantiated, and explicitly indicates whether something is a party allegation, an authority action, a judicial finding or an editorial classification.

For affected persons it is regularly essential to keep their own chronology complete, to retain submissions and service documents, and to pay attention to clear requests. Where the factual situation changes, it must be examined whether new facts can still be introduced in the ongoing proceedings and which legal remedies are available.

Further articles

Editorial specialist article. Not individual legal advice. Before publication, the status of legislation and case law and the sources must be checked again.