breaking MSA and JPA agreements

[ae1024]

My court date for my divorce was Dec. 4th 2006, in Kane County in Illinois.  I am (like Olanna from CA) still waiting for my divorce decree.  I was told 30 days so if I dont have something soon I will have to make some phone calls.

Here is my problem/question.  My x is completely disregarding and breaking almost every agreement we have on both the Marriage Separation Agreement AND the Joint Parenting Agreement.  I am no longer dealing with my attorney due to her not having enough experience with this type of case and basically I dont know what to do to hold my x accountable for these agreements.

Here is a break down of the problems so far:

JOINT PARENTING ISSUES
She is the residential parent-i work 50-60 hours a week and she was told by the judge that as residential parent the day to day parenting responsibilities are for her to do-that being said:

She is not paying at all for her portion of medical bills.  
She is not taking the kids to the dr when they are sick.
She is not refilling the kids allergy and asthma medication when they run out of it.
She will go all week without bathing the children.
She has let the water be shut off at her home due to non payment.
My oldest daughter has 5 unexcused school absenses due to my x saying she (my x not my daughter) was too depressed to drive her to school and didnt have enough gas (its only 4 blocks from her home).
She has not gone to the court mandated parenting class-said she couldnt afford it and didnt feel well that day-has not rescheduled.

MARITAL SEP. ISSUES
These are all direct violation of the agreement:

She is not paying her portion of medical expenses
She has refused to pay for transfering the title of my mini-van which i gave her free of charge-into her name
She has refused to provide me with copies of family photographs
She has refused to provide me with my personal belongings that are still in her home (some of which she is said to have destroyed and given away)

To top all this off I REALLY want full custody or at least residential custody of my children.  For obvious reasons, I feel they will be healthier and better cared for if they reside with me.  My x's history of mental illness and severe depression and anxiety problems is also a concern for me.  I have weekend visitation from friday evening through sunday evening.  In the 35 days since our court date-i have had visitation with my kids an extra 12 days on top of my regular visitation due to her not feeling well, taking care of her sick boyfriend, wanting a break for a day here and there, etc.  I love the extra time with my girls, dont get me wrong, but I know this plays into my child support in some ways.

Basically what I am looking for is some direction about whether i should file some petitions, should call the mediator and schedule a meeting with her, or what i should do.  I am lost, and as you can probably imagine-extreemely frustrated.

Thanks in advance.

Elliott

[socrateaser]

If your MSA/JPA already filed with the court, but not yet signed by the judge, then you are stuck with it. You could file a motion for a hearing to enter the stipulated agreements on grounds that your spouse is continuously violating the agreements and you have no means of enforcing your rights. Or, you could file for a temporary restraining order against your spouse to enforce the terms of the agreement pending final entry on the same grounds.

Most of what you are describing is pretty common stuff during divorce, so the court is not going to jump up to try to help you.

I'd start going through the general process that I described for Olanna, because once you get the dissolution judgment entered, then you can file for contempt if your ex doesn't abide by the orders.

As far as getting primary custody now, well, you're not describing something that I think is serious enough yet to cause the court to order a new custody hearing. Mainly what you're describing are financial problems, and I hete to tell you this, but unless you can show that the other parent is squandering her money, then the court's solution to this sort of problem could well be to temporarily increase your child support obligation, while simultaneously requiring that the custodial parent seek employment.