The County Court held that the Magistrates' Court's destruction of audio recordings of the hearing and oral reasons for decision constituted legal error enlivening appellate jurisdiction under s119 of the Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (Vic), because the appellant's ability to demonstrate legal, factual or discretionary error — as required following AAA v County Court of Victoria [2023] VSC 13 — was fundamentally undermined. The Court declined to order reconstruction of evidence by affidavit given the 8–12 year lapse of time and the impossibility of resolving conflicts between the parties' recollections. The question of appropriate disposition — including whether the Magistrates' Court order should simply be set aside with no further order given the staleness of the underlying allegations — was left open for further submissions.
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