Messages

>I can reply as a CP dad (who is currently trying to figure
>out a way to successfully eat crow, swallow it and place my
>daughter back where she belongs...with mom)
>
>I had the money, she didn't. I had the lawyer she didn't. She
>had the nervous breakdown because I had the lawyer and the
>money and was squeezing her with it.
>
>My lawyer took her weak point, exploited it, I was too pissed
>off at the bitterness of our divorce to think ahead that her
>mental deterioration was only temporary and decided our DD was
>better off with my new wife and I. I had the money to pay all
>the right people to say all the right things, and in no time,
>I was the CP.
>
>
this is exactly what happened to me.  

>
>All I can suggest is that you tell the attorney if he isn't
>willing to give you the representation that you deserve, that
>you will put his entire bill in dispute and file a complaint
>with the state bar. That will mean that your attorney will
>push back and probably try to walk away from the case, and the
>judge will almost certainly let him walk. Then you'll have to
>hire someone else, only there is no one else. Which sets you
>up to lose.

sorry about the new handle.....

It turns out that my attorney has had his eye on the bench for some time now... possibly before he even took my case.

this explains his hesitation to recuse the judge. I called him on it, saying that i didn't feel I should be paying for a 'human relations' issue. he filed the recusal for me but it was strangely worded.

I am not sure how any other attorney would have written the complaint, but it seemed quite sweet.

only a few short weeks following the letter from the judge granting the request, my attorney announced his candidacy.... also that he would be unavailabe for most of the month of july, august.... possibly some in september.

he is difficult to reach and is focused on his campaign.

I retained this attorney following the unexpected demise of my previous attorney, that occurred in January.

since march he has billed me for over $10k.... of course most of which was getting aquainted with my case.

it appears that not only am i without an attorney, again, but that i will be spending more money getting another attorney aquainted with my case.

he says that if he wins the election that he would not begin until january. in the mean time i do not feel that he can effectively represent me, while having this campaign on his mind and then possibly the judicial position.

so to the question....
1. though he did some great work on my case, does it seem necessary for me to seek new counsel (not good to change horses again).

2. if so, would it be appropriate for me to dispute a portion of his bill?... it is fully refundable if not used.

3. he does have a sr. partner. would it be better for me to try to get on her calendar? my attorney stated that it would work if he were elected, because it would cut down on my costs of taking on a new attorney.

4. is it appropriate for me to ask to be transferred to his partner?

this is all very discouraging!
thank you for your help.

>
>All I can suggest is that you tell the attorney if he isn't
>willing to give you the representation that you deserve, that
>you will put his entire bill in dispute and file a complaint
>with the state bar. That will mean that your attorney will
>push back and probably try to walk away from the case, and the
>judge will almost certainly let him walk. Then you'll have to
>hire someone else, only there is no one else. Which sets you
>up to lose.

sorry about the new handle.....

It turns out that my attorney has had his eye on the bench for some time now... possibly before he even took my case.

this explains his hesitation to recuse the judge. I called him on it, saying that i didn't feel I should be paying for a 'human relations' issue. he filed the recusal for me but it was strangely worded.

I am not sure how any other attorney would have written the complaint, but it seemed quite sweet.

only a few short weeks following the letter from the judge granting the request, my attorney announced his candidacy.... also that he would be unavailabe for most of the month of july, august.... possibly some in september.

he is difficult to reach and is focused on his campaign.

I retained this attorney following the unexpected demise of my previous attorney, that occurred in January.

since march he has billed me for over $10k.... of course most of which was getting aquainted with my case.

it appears that not only am i without an attorney, again, but that i will be spending more money getting another attorney aquainted with my case.

he says that if he wins the election that he would not begin until january. in the mean time i do not feel that he can effectively represent me, while having this campaign on his mind and then possibly the judicial position.

so to the question....
1. though he did some great work on my case, does it seem necessary for me to seek new counsel (not good to change horses again).

2. if so, would it be appropriate for me to dispute a portion of his bill?... it is fully refundable if not used.

3. he does have a sr. partner. would it be better for me to try to get on her calendar? my attorney stated that it would work if he were elected, because it would cut down on my costs of taking on a new attorney.

4. is it appropriate for me to ask to be transferred to his partner?

this is all very discouraging!
thank you for your help.

Hi Soc!  Hope you had a great vacation!

My ex and I were married in Florida in 1971, divorced in Georgia in 1998.  

He started working for a company in 1970, just before we were married and was laid-off in 1988 when the company was bought by Georgia Pacific.

This was just short of his 20 years and they did not give him his retirement.

I have just learned that in 2003 he filed a lawsuit against GP for the retirement and received a $40K settlement.

1. souldn't i be entitled to half of this settlement?

2. would i need an attorney to file a lawsuit against my ex for half? or could i do it pro se?

3. how would i file this? is it small claims?

4. i believe this lawsuit was done in brunswick, ga. do i need to go to the courthouse there to obtain a copy of the record?

thank you

my attorney died on january 9th. i have had a couple of consultations already and have chosen an attorney. i have an appointment on 2/21 to retain him, but i just received a call from the evaluator.

she has previously told me that she would place no timeline on the completion of the evaluation and would accept new information/documentation (ie depositions that were scheduled prior to my attorney's passing)

today she called me saying that opposing counsel is pressing forward and filing a motion to set trial which will pressure he to turn in her report.

i did not know that i only had 30 days to retain a new attorney. i need until the 21th (my appointment) to raise the new retainer and get all the paperwork together for him.

he definately wants to complete depositions to give to the evaluator and some other things.

1. is there anything i can do until then to extend the suspension of my case? if not, any other ideas?

yes, that attorney is booked. but the eval. assistant is suggesting that i hire the partner... same firm so she would still be involved.

i guess it couldn't hurt to go for consultation with the partner.. see if i even like him.

seems weird to me too. i know the assistant talked with the evaluator about it, but it was as if she was only saying 'no' so the eval. wouldn't know what she was suggesting i do.

only a couple of weeks ago the eval. called me with additional questions and stated that 'it seems like there hasn't been a substantial change in circumstances. there were medical disputes mentioned in the original evaluation, so it seems the two of you are arguing about the same thing.'

i wondered if she were pretty much telling me her decision, which violates new jurisdiction evaluation guidelines which states that only the judge is to make such determination.

our daughter developed asthma after the divorce was final. the other parent denied her medication and smoked in her presence which made her attacks worse and more frequent... to the point that the dr. called dcfs.

i just told her i felt the circumstances had changed, because he agreed to follow drs. orders in our agreement... and did not. and he wasn't to smoke.. and he does around the children.

i really shouldn't tell anyone about the referral, right?

soc,
florida - rotating 50/50 with other parent as 'primary', though with evidence to prove that I have managed our children's needs (ie doctors, dental, school voluteerism, etc...)
the other parent filed to reduce visitation to minimum, so i had no choice but to counter to modify custody/primary.

the custody evaluator is an attorney.

currently we are admidst evaluation... the report, though the evaluator states that it is not complete and that she welcomes supplimental information.

my attorney died two weeks ago. i felt comfortable in my decision of replacement counsel with an attorney that i have a prior client relationship.  she seems very thorough and seems to know inside information on many of the people involved in our case (ie judge, evaluator, etc...)

she knows what the judge will not be interested to hear and what things we should place more emphasis that would bring the judge provacation against the other parent....

however, the evalutor's assistant called me for a status on my search for replacement counsel. i told her of the appointment i had been to .... and she tells me that the eval. crinkled her nose and shook her head no, saying 'she's no good.'.

the eval. assistant proceeded to say that she knew of a few good attorneys and gave me five names. she said that these are all colleuges/friends of the eval. and she thinks i should choose one of them, placing heavy emphasis on one name of the list.

the assistant said that because they are very friendly with the eval. they will just call the eval. and that the eval. will probably speak more candidly with that attorney. she also said that i shouldn't tell anyone she gave me the information.

today i called her back because the attorney the eval. assistant was pushing isn't taking any new cases at this time, because she has a full case load. the partner however could take my case. i asked the assistant if she knew about him. she put me on hold to ask the eval.

when she came back on the phone she said that the eval. says that we cannot recommend an attorney for me but that he is very good and was a general magistrate for 13 years.

i told her ok. and that maybe i would check out some of the other names she had given me as well. the assistant said 'no'. that confused me so i said 'what?'.  she said 'no'    i asked  'do not check out the others?'. she said 'no'.   i asked so go with this one, they are friends?'. she said 'yes.'

this is all very confusing. i don't see a harm in a consultation with this attorney, but this is a delima for me. it all seems very inappropriate.

my first instinct told me to go with this attorney that knows my case very well already and is an evaluator herself. she knows the little ins-and-outs of the judge and what he will be more likely to rule substantial change on, etc....

1. what do you think about all of this?

2. would it really help me to use an attorney that knows our evaluator that well?  ( i suppose the eval. would be more likely to speak candidly with that attorney)

our evaluator called me a few days ago, following the other parent's home visit and had a few questions for me.

during the conversation she stated that 'it seems there has been no substantial change to warrant a modification'

of course i followed with my reasons for believing a substantial change had occurred, however....

1. has she just revealed to me her decision?

2. is there anything i can do about it or do i just have to wait around for the report?

i just found out yesterday that my attorney died in her sleep sometime monday night. it is very sad... and i had just spoken with her at 7pm that night. i realize that though i am not her friend, we have gotten to know one another a bit over the last two years of my modification case.

my question is.... do you think that her funeral is more of a family thing and since i knew her in a professional capacity and was a client, maybe i shouldn't go to the funeral?

this is what my husband said when i inquired about the funeral, and thought you might offer insight.

my attorney really would like to stick with this evaluator, since the other parent has stalled so long, which seemed to irritate her(evaluator).

so regarding the fact that the evaluator has not contacted my witnesses yet... which you said i should be concerned about...

my attorney was concerned as well, and suggested that since keeping this evaluator may be beneficial to us that i should take steps to ensure that she hears from my witnesses and get them to write letters to her.

it was very difficult to approach teachers in the first place and explain the circumstances, asking what kind of information they would have to offer to the evaluator. now i must ask them to write letters?

1. could it possibly be that the evaluator waits until she has interviewed both parties before she speaks with my witness, so that she may be thorough... that she may have more questions for my witnesses after speaking with the other parent?

2. do you also think that i should go ahead and get letters from the witnesses?

3. what information should the letters contain? (ie from a teacher) what would the evaluator wish to hear?

thank you!