Recalculation of Child Support Has Taken Nearly 1 year

[momof5]

Dear Socrateaser!

I'm so frustrated because for one scheduling conflict or another on the part of either my attorney or my ex-husband's we've failed to make it into court.  The court date keeps getting pushed forward.  The court date has been postponed about 8 times in the last 11 months.   ONe time we did get to see the judge and it wasn't pretty because I took it on myself to pay only the amount that I calculated using the worksheet for my state.

Thankfully, the support order with the new calculation is effective May 2003.  I thank myself for having my attorney put this in there.

My story is that I gave birth to 2 add'l children and my ex's income has increased.  The ex keeps putting off going to court because he claims he still needs the entire previous ordered support to pay for all the expenses her incurs for our children.  

I live in RI.

My questions to you are:

1)  Do I have an recourse on my attorney for putting off the court date over and over again because of either my attorney's scheduling conflicts or my ex-husband's?  I'm thinking of filing a complaint to someone but who I don't know!

2) I have to continue paying the weekly ordered support to my ex-husband which is putting me in a financial hardship.  The last time I stopped paying the ordered amount & JUST payed THE ESTIMATED AMOUNT (lower number) the judge went bizerk in the hearing and sent me home telling me to get current and he would recalculate....  Why wouldn't he just recalculate right there and then and we could have squared all $$ away at that point?

Thanks for your input!

[socrateaser]

>My questions to you are:
>
>1)  Do I have an recourse on my attorney for putting off the
>court date over and over again because of either my attorney's
>scheduling conflicts or my ex-husband's?  I'm thinking of
>filing a complaint to someone but who I don't know!

Your recourse is to complain to your attorney in writing, then complain to the agency in RI that is responsible for the regulation of attorneys. This may be the RI State Bar Association, or it may be some other State agency, however I don't have time to research it for you.

>2) I have to continue paying the weekly ordered support to my
>ex-husband which is putting me in a financial hardship.  The
>last time I stopped paying the ordered amount & JUST payed THE
>ESTIMATED AMOUNT (lower number) the judge went bizerk in the
>hearing and sent me home telling me to get current and he
>would recalculate....  Why wouldn't he just recalculate right
>there and then and we could have squared all $$ away at that
>point?

Please don't give new facts as part of your questions. Court ordered support is not optional and the court has authority to modify support retrocative to the date of filing of the motion to modify, which in your case is apparently a year ago.

You may or may not get the benefit of this retroactive modification, but in the meantime, you owe what the current order demands, unless you can get the judge to modify it with a temporary order.

Perhaps that's why the judge was annoyed.