Response from other partys atty already

[TwoBoys]

Ok, this should be short.  Case is in florida, child is 8 hours away (still in same state).  Order states that we get 14 weekend visitations per year, and in addition, we get 3 7-day visitations.  Had a hearing in Jan at which the order went officially into place, and the judge reserved jurisdiction, and ordered a settlement conference between the parties before a final hearing could be had.

We took your advice and sent the other partys atty a letter requesting a date to set the court ordered settlement conference.  Offered 3 dates, and asked that they respond within 10 days with their preference or an alternative, otherwise it would take place on such and such date.

Received a very vague letter in return just yesterday that stated:

He was busy those days.  Talk to his paralegal to coordinate a date. And that as of yet, he has not received a court order from the judge allowing our previous atty to withdraw.  He offered no other alternative.

Also in the letter, he said his client agreed to a week of visitation to from Mon Mar 21 to Sunday March 27 (5 pm exchange times).  We had requested March 18 to March 25, because Fri March 25 - Mon March 28 is our normal weekend visitation.  So they are basically offering us 5 days in addition to our regular weekend, but wanting us to return him early on our weekend (sun instead of monday).

Weve failed twice in trying to set the settlement conference via phone: first time she said they refused to deal with pro se clients, and second time they said that they wouldnt deal with us until our atty of record had withdrawn, he has since withdrawn, and the signed letter has been sent to him stating such from the previous atty.


Now, Questions

1.  Since he offered no alternative dates as we had requested, what do we do now?  Send another letter and give him more time?  Hes obviously avoiding setting this thing, why i dont know.

2.  They are offering a week, but its not really a week.  Can you give me a suggestion as to how to word our response regarding that particular comment?  we want any time we can get but we dont want to trade our 7 days plus a weekend for 5 days plus part of our weekend.

3.  Should we address the settlement conference, the weeklong visitation, and our previous request for our week at fathers day (which they are also in disagreement with) all in one letter or in seperate letters to keep the issues as seperate as possible?

Thank you,
TwoBoys

[socrateaser]

You just gave me some new information. Until you or your attorney moves the court to withdraw and that motion is granted, then your prior attorney is your attorney of record, and the other attorney is not supposed to communicate with you.

So, you need to officially remove your attorney from the case, and have the court recognize you as acting in propria persona (pro se).

[TwoBoys]

We fired him well over a month ago, hes dragged his butt on filing the stipulation to withdraw.  Weve signed, hes yet to file it.

Another atty in our area said that once we sent confirmation of our request for him to withdraw, and the atty sent the stipulation to both parties, the other atty shouldnt have any reason to NOT communicate with us.  Maybe hes not quite accurate?

Also, i shoudl add, here in FL, the courts are MONTHS behind due to the hurricanes.  the courthouse was destroyed and theyre in trailers and temp buildings around town still.

Have we no other options until the order officially gets signed bythe judge?

TwoBoys...

[socrateaser]

>We fired him well over a month ago, hes dragged his butt on
>filing the stipulation to withdraw.  Weve signed, hes yet to
>file it.
>
>Another atty in our area said that once we sent confirmation
>of our request for him to withdraw, and the atty sent the
>stipulation to both parties, the other atty shouldnt have any
>reason to NOT communicate with us.  Maybe hes not quite
>accurate?
>
>Also, i shoudl add, here in FL, the courts are MONTHS behind
>due to the hurricanes.  the courthouse was destroyed and
>theyre in trailers and temp buildings around town still.
>
>Have we no other options until the order officially gets
>signed bythe judge?
>
>TwoBoys...

I'd call your attorney and arrange to go pick up the filing and then file it yourself. Technically, the other attorney can use the fact that there's no order removing the old attorney as a stall tactic. Ordinarily, if a new attorney were being substituted in, opposing counsel would feel free to negotiate in the interim, but it's obvious that your opponent IS using this as a stall tactic, so I would just remove the roadblock. The other reason why this is important is that until the court clerk sees that you are in pro per, all the court correspondence will continue to be sent to your old attorney instead of to you.

[TwoBoys]

Thanks, Will do.

I just double checked our courts website, nothing has been filed by our attorney in well over a month.

On our way to get it and file it ourself.  

Thank you for all your help.

TwoBoys...