Good Father being rail roaded....

[FawnSells]

I know that this email may not be all that unusual to you, but I would like to explain.  My boyfriend has been relentlessly battered through a 2 1/2 year uncontested, no fault divorce action in Washington County PA.  Although we have been paying a Lawyer top dolla,r it is evident that after two years of asking that our case be handled in a fair way, this is not going to happen.  
 
I am paralegal and after compiling and painstakingly reviewing all the Court papers in his case, it is fair to say that something fishy is going on.  Although he has always paid for and even gone above and beyond his responsibilities as a Father, the Mother continues to keep him from his children and his Attorney refuses to submit Interrogatories to her, even after he has been asked several times over the last two years to do so.  Although there is absolutely no evidence that the Father is unfit, the courts refuse to allow him overnight visits with his three children.  Also, the Mother is clearly making false statements throughout the court documents and is not making mortgage payments on the marital home that she resides in out of the support she gets (as ordered) there have been no contempt charges brought against her whatsoever.  She has had zero accountability for how she is home schooling the children, who is providing child care, or why the children are calling someone in her life the "candy man" or what she is using her support money for.
 
This has just been a complete and total nightmare.  At the beginning of this whole thing the Mother appealed the support decision but was denied on her exceptions.  She has also changed Lawyers twice and failed to show at scheduled court events.  Even though he was making direct payments to her and paying the mortgage and utilities during the time of the appeal (before the support order became final) the court did not give him credit for the mortgage or utility payments even when he showed proof of payment at a contempt hearing.  This amount was added to his arrears balance and he is being forced to pay again and again for money that she already received.  In January he caught up the Mortgage that she failed to pay as ordered and he did not get credit for this payment until the Mother went in months later to sign the paper.  Recently, he borrowed money from a family member to catch her up again on the mortgage (which reflects on his credit report as do the arrears balance, enabling him from being able to get any credit), however the courts are once again not giving him credit for this payment and she has not yet gone in to sign the papers.  He is paying this money to the mortgage company so that his children will have a place to live.
 
Additionally, we have moved closer to the children and set up rooms for them in an attempt to try and get a different visitation schedule then the one previously set, due to the fact that he was working and living in Florida during the time that the custody conference was held.  He pays $2642.00 per month plus $250.00 extra to pay off that arrears balance.  It is absurd what he has been put through and the Mother is alienating the children from him and even tried in the beginning to get a PFA order against him regarding the children asking for no visitation, which failed.  She was however able to get the PFA for herself, as I know that the courts are quick to err on the side of caution, that PFA expired in January of 2004.  The accusations were by the way completely false and unfounded.  It was her word against his as there were no witnesses to the alleged threats.   Although, many of these issues have been brought up to our current Attorney, there have been crucial times that he has refused to act on our behalf unless our bill was paid up in full.  Due to the Father being a self employed small business owner and trying very hard to keep his business going under the most brutal circumstances, his income has its ups and downs to say the least.  In recent months he has had a substantial change in circumstances and has asked his Attorney on several occasions to have his case reevaluated.  His current support was based on income from 2000 and a profit and loss statement for 2002.  Since that time his business has taken a substantial loss and now that we have moved from PA he is working by the hour and has not yet contracted any work in the area, although he is diligently trying to.
 
We are scheduled for yet another contempt hearing next week and have just entered a second set of interrogatories directed at the Father, as the Mother did not go to the Domestic Relations Section and sign papers that we paid for the Mortgage again.  At the present time we have no money to hire a new Attorney, although we desperately want to. We know for sure that the Judges are ruling for the Mother because of personal ties that she has to some high profile people in the community.  However, we understand that this can of worms should not be opened, but would love to have an Attorney that is not tied into this small towns political agenda.
 
I have spent the past two days chronologically outlining the events in the case and organizing the file to match.  What we need is to first of all have the divorce issue completed.  Why an uncontested, no fault divorce action is taking two and a half years to finalize is beyond me.  Now, they are saying the final hearing will not be until September of this year.  The Divorce was filed in December of 2002. The Mother is beating her head against the wall trying to tap into some family money that she feels she is "entitled to" even though we have already submitted all of the supporting documents showing that the Father does not receive income from those family businesses they are still asking us for these financial statements, which we do not have because there is no money coming from these sources.  The children are the ones who are really being punished through all of this and being denied the benefit of a loving Father who has done nothing but take care of his children throughout this whole process.  They are 8, 6 and 5 yrs old.  Its so sad to me, because I have a 9 year old child who's Father wants nothing to do with him, and my boyfriend has stepped up and been an awesome role model for him to follow.  I feel that something should and can be done if we were able to talk to the right people.
 
We really need a break and someone to help us to at least be allowed to have a visitation schedule with the children on a regular basis.  The only time that the Mother calls the Father is for money, and generally the Father is not allowed to speak to the children when he calls.  Also, the Mother often does not answer his phone calls and when asked if he could visit the children last week for Fathers Day her response was "this week is not a good week." (it never is) He would like to just show up at the house and see the kids, but he is afraid of what type of scandal this would cause and does not want to do anything that would hurt himself further.  So, he's got three beautiful children that he has been the sole financial supporter of for the past 8 years (the mother has never worked and still does not work) yet he is not being allowed to see them.  Still, he is being taken to court for contempt for not paying the support, although he did pay over three thousand dollars to the mortgage company last month so that they would not foreclose on the house for her failure to pay as ordered.
 
Please, if there is anything at all that you can do for us, we really need your help or advise.  This has been emotionally, physically, psychologically, and financially draining on the Father and children.  He is almost to the point of giving up, feeling that there is nothing he can do to fight this nonsense.  We are really just at the end of our rope.  You may reach him at [email protected] or myself at the above email address.  We can also be reached by telephone at 724-625-1438 or his cell is 724-413-6040.  Thank you for your time, any way that you can help would be appreciated.          

[awakenlynn]

I would immediately find another attorney.  After this long, you know this one will not work out.  Documenting is EVERYTHING.  It sounds like you are doing a good job at that.  Write out exactly what you want.  What visitation you want, what support is fair to be paid(that you can figure)  ANYTHING you give her needs to be clearly notated as to Child Support or Alimony, etc.  Big letters and make sure the checks have the duplicate back and it shows through clearly.  Get copies of the cancelled checks.