Short answer. The application is set for hearing not more than three days after the comment is filed, or after the period to file it expires. The facts in issue at that hearing are proved in the same manner prescribed for evidence on motions generally.
What the law says
After the comment is filed, or after the expiration of the period for its filing, the application shall be set for hearing not more than three days thereafter. The facts in issue shall be proved in the same manner as is provided for evidence on motions.
Rule 61, Section 3 — Hearing. Read the full provision →
A tight three-day turnaround
Rule 61, Section 3 keeps the pace of a support pendente lite proceeding fast. Once the comment is filed — or once the period to file it has simply lapsed without a comment — the application must be set for hearing within no more than three days. This reflects the urgency inherent in support: the applicant's needs are ongoing while the case is pending, and a support application that drags on for weeks before even reaching a hearing would defeat the provisional relief the rule is designed to deliver. Contrasted with the longer notice periods ordinary motions can carry, this compressed timeline signals that support pendente lite is meant to be resolved quickly, not litigated at length before any interim relief is granted.
Two triggers, same short deadline
The section covers both scenarios equally: whether the adverse party actually files a comment or lets the period expire without responding, the three-day clock for setting the hearing starts from whichever of those two events occurs. Silence does not delay the process — an adverse party who simply ignores the application cannot use inaction to push the hearing date back, since the expiration of the comment period is itself enough to trigger the three-day window regardless of whether any comment was ever filed.
Evidence follows the motions standard
Rather than requiring a full trial-style presentation of evidence, the section directs that facts in issue be proved in the same manner as is provided for evidence on motions. This lighter evidentiary framework — typically affidavits and documentary evidence rather than live testimony — is consistent with the provisional, expedited nature of a support pendente lite hearing. Because the hearing is not a trial on the merits of the underlying case, the court is not expected to resolve every factual dispute definitively at this stage; it only needs enough of a showing, through the motions-type evidence the section allows, to fix a reasonable amount of interim support while the main case proceeds.