How to proceed

[forthekids24]

Santa Clara County, CA

I am custodial parent.

NCP's Child support is based on a % of her bonus each month.

NCP's lawyer sent a letter a few months ago giving me a "heads up" that her bonus income would be almost non-existent going forward due to having a new manager.  

About the same time I learned that NCP was carrying on a relationship with her new manager and suspected that he was paying for her new home and all utilities.

Sent interrogatories for NCP to fill out.  Main questions were "who is paying for your home" and "who is paying for your utilities".  As we suspected NCP's new boss is paying for her home and utilities.

Coincidentally the same time she moved in to her new home (and the boss started paying for her living expenses), she stopped getting bonuses all together.  (They went from $4k/ month to $0)

I contacted the company that the NCP works for and they confirmed that bonuses are paid at the discretion of the employees manager, and that it was possible that the manager was receiving the bonus instead of the NCP.

To me it is clear that there is something going on here.

How should I proceed?

Thanks
FTK

[socrateaser]

>How should I proceed?

File for a modification of support, based on a material change in circumstances, use the interrogatory to demonstrate that her change in income is coincident with her new found benefactor, and ask the court to impute her support obligation based upon the amount of expenses for which she has be relieved by the new benefactor, or based on her average bonus income during the past 12 months, whichever is greater.

You'll need to request production of all of her expenses and income over the past year, as well as her I&E declaration and tax returns.

Before you do all this, send her attorney a letter stating that based upon the interrogatory answers, you believe that she is hiding behind her new manager, and that she can either come to a negotiated settlement on a fixed support amount now, or you will be forced to engage in an expensive forensic accounting of her circumstances, as well as depose her manager and her employer, and then ask the court to impute her income based on her expenses, and assess attorney fees and costs against her for the unnecessary litigation as the result of what appears to be a charade designed to avoid her child support obligation.

You can also mention, that if the situation turns out to be as transparent as it appears, and that if he persists in representing his client in the obvious misrepresentation, that if and when this matter is resolved in your favor, that you will file a complaint with the State Bar for his violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

I'll bet that you get a settlement, or the attorney withdraws from the case immediately, because based on your facts, this attorney's license is in serious jeopardy if he takes this thing to a hearing on the merits.