§ 744 Evidence in fact-finding hearings; required quantum

When a family court holds a fact-finding hearing, judges can only look at evidence that actually matters to the case. This means the evidence has to be relevant to what happened, based on reliable proof, and connected to the facts being decided. Judges can't consider things that are just rumors, guesses, or unrelated information.

If the court decides that a person did something wrong, the proof has to be very strong. The standard is "beyond a reasonable doubt," which is the same high bar used in criminal cases. This is a tough standard to meet, and it means the court has to be almost completely certain before making that finding.

There's also a special rule about confessions. If someone confesses to something outside of court, that confession alone isn't enough to prove they did it. The court needs other evidence to back up the confession before it can be used to find that the person committed the act. This protects people from being found responsible for something based only on their own out of court statements, without any other proof.