S.Z.

FACTS

At the beginning of September 2022, a time when mother and father were married, mother filed a petition for a domestic violence restraining order seeking to protect her and the couple’s two minor children from father. Father filed a declaration opposing the ex parte grant of a temporary restraining order. The trial court granted a temporary restraining order pending a hearing on the matter, scheduled for the end of the month. Among other provisions, the order required father to vacate the family home and stay away from mother and the children, with no communication or visitation with the children. Five days later, father filed a petition for dissolution of their marriage. In a supplemental declaration filed prior to the first hearing, father claimed mother provided false and misleading information to the court. He denied having ever physically or mentally abused mother or their children, and he denied ever behaving aggressively toward them. In response to specific incidents raised by mother in support of her application, father claimed the incidents never happened. At the end of the September 2022 hearing, the court heard from the parties and appointed counsel to represent…