When a party or interested person is summoned to a family court or mediation hearing, who must appear, and when may someone else be sent instead?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
For this exercise, the file to read is the summons or scheduling notice, which shows which hearing it concerns and on whose behalf the person was summoned, the identity and capacity papers showing whether the attendee is the party, the legal representative or someone else, and any application for permission and the permission itself if a representative was to attend.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the paragraph at face value: a party or interested person summoned to an argument hearing, inquiry hearing or mediation date held by the family court, the mediation committee or the mediation judge must appear in person or through their legal representative, and only where special circumstances exist, and with the permission of the presiding judge, the mediation chair or the mediation judge, may a representative be sent and an assistant be accompanied.
Another reading notes that the paragraph does not say what counts as special circumstances or how the permission is to be sought, and it does not itself address a representative who is not a lawyer, a point the provision handles separately by requiring that person's prior permission.
Your judgment
What in a practice file could show circumstances special enough to justify sending a representative instead of appearing in person?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to define what counts as special circumstances or to change who may grant the permission, or if a court decision explains when a representative may be allowed to attend.