Since my last post on the epic litigation with the ex, my atty and I finally got confirmation of a trial date . . . it only took about two months since the notice for continuance after the ex hired a lawyer in the eleventh hour following the [former] judge’s decision almost six months ago that we needed a four-hour trial because he hadn’t read the court file in our May hearing which the court scheduled following a judgment (based almost entirely on my ex’s improperly filed ex parte communication following our August ’10 hearing) which was dated over a year ago . . .
But who’s counting?
I am.
Since finally getting a trial date a few weeks ago, my atty reached out to the ex’s atty to negotiate an agreement on some of the issues prior to this trial and unlike the last atty my ex hired, this atty is polite, respectful, and responsive.
Which brings me to last week. Following a call with the ex’s atty earlier in the week, my atty contacted me and we had a frank discussion on what I should do.
Reaching a settlement made a lot of sense financially and to be quite frank, most of my retainer is gone and my atty hasn’t even filed anything (I drafted, filed, and served the contempt charges on my own).
I gave my atty my priorities and reiterated what I was willing to concede. I agreed to the proposed concessions and both attys were to have a call late last week after my ex’s atty had spoken to him.
While I won’t (for obvious reasons) give the details of these discussion, I will say that the follow-up call with my atty late last week was not encouraging. And again, without going into details it sounds like my ex will be pro se again.
And here’s where the waiting game begins . . . again . . .
I will find out in the next forty-eight hours whether or not we have an agreement and/or whether or not my ex will be pro se . . .
If he is, most likely we’ll have another continuance . . .
Words cannot begin to describe how frustrated, discouraged, and upset I am about all of this.
Seriously, once it would have no repercussions on your case, you should “go public” (in a pseudo-anonymous way) about this ordeal, to spotlight the very serious problems your family courts face. While ours are far from perfect, there’d be some heads rolling if this happened in our jurisdiction. We’d call it judicial misconduct. We start getting pissy when we go 3-4 months without a decision following a hearing.
I’m not going to deny that “going public” has not crossed my mind on numerous occasions over the past year. Still no word from their camp.
I’m worried that I’ll be spending my holiday weekend writing a response motion to new issues (there was a strong suggestion last week that the ex will ask for more parenting time if we go to trial) we may get served on Friday (which is their last day to file a motion with new issues). If this happens, I have to file a response by next Tuesday.
Regardless, I’m also worried about the parenting time exchange I have tomorrow night and again on Saturday evening.
This whole situation is so messed up, it’s hard to believe it’s really happening . . . but here we are . . .
Hi,
I came across your blog tonight while looking for inspiration on attending law school as a single mom. I am going through a terrible divorce, contested custody, child support, and spousal maintenance. I was a stay at home mom for close to 6 years now and he is a dr (specialist). I just wanted to let you know I enjoyed reading your blogs and congratulations on almost finishing law school. You have given me some inspiration that what I was considering doing as far as moving forward with my education is possible.