NCP & Atty ignoring issues

[greatdad]

I have sole legal and physical custody, have had for a year. Divorce still not final though. NCP has had 2 motions to compel discovery without complying, now NCPs atty has ignored communication from my atty to agree to support amount to be paid to me ( judge asked attys to agree to the amount then present order) so were asking court to go ahead and order it as drafted.
Question is will this not make NCP look really bad, and will judge factor the above lack of cooperation by her and her atty into decision at the final if she tries to change custody ? It is amazing that even knowing support must be paid , she is acting like it doesnt exist. It isnt even a large amount of money.

[Kitty C.]

'If you give them enough rope, they will hang themselves.'  It looks like this is exactly what the NCP and her atty. are doing.  And there isn't a thing you can do about it.  Yes, it will make her look bad, but that's HER problem, not your's.  Now, if the judge gets pissed at her for her refusal to cooperate, he/she could very well order more support.  Whether the NCP will pay it is a different matter altogether and I would make sure there are provisions in the CS order for enforcement in case she refuses to pay.

[greatdad]

I have sole legal and physical custody, have had for a year. Divorce still not final though. NCP has had 2 motions to compel discovery without complying, now NCPs atty has ignored communication from my atty to agree to support amount to be paid to me ( judge asked attys to agree to the amount then present order) so were asking court to go ahead and order it as drafted.
Question is will this not make NCP look really bad, and will judge factor the above lack of cooperation by her and her atty into decision at the final if she tries to change custody ? It is amazing that even knowing support must be paid , she is acting like it doesnt exist. It isnt even a large amount of money.

[Kitty C.]

'If you give them enough rope, they will hang themselves.'  It looks like this is exactly what the NCP and her atty. are doing.  And there isn't a thing you can do about it.  Yes, it will make her look bad, but that's HER problem, not your's.  Now, if the judge gets pissed at her for her refusal to cooperate, he/she could very well order more support.  Whether the NCP will pay it is a different matter altogether and I would make sure there are provisions in the CS order for enforcement in case she refuses to pay.

[jenjen]

What state are u in?

anyway it seems to me that she has hung herself, they can argue it's not there fault that you may be asking for some crazy amount of support and you are the one not cooperating. how will the judge determine who is or who's not?   he or she probably would not be able to determine that, and it really doesnt matter beacuse the mere fact that she is not sending anything regardless of what you two could or could not agree on should piss the judge off and your attorney should really play that out strenthening your status as custodial parent. dont push the issue with her for support let it come back before the judge without her sending a dime for the children and sit back and watch her and her attorney get a good tongue lashing. and  have  your attorney prepared to ask for child support based on the states guideline plus arrears payable by income deduction.

[greatdad]

>What state are u in?

Virginia.

>
>anyway it seems to me that she has hung herself, they can
>argue it's not there fault that you may be asking for some
>crazy amount of support and you are the one not cooperating.
>how will the judge determine who is or who's not?   he or she
>probably would not be able to determine that, and it really
>doesnt matter beacuse the mere fact that she is not sending
>anything regardless of what you two could or could not agree
>on should piss the judge off and your attorney should really
>play that out strenthening your status as custodial parent.
>dont push the issue with her for support let it come back
>before the judge without her sending a dime for the children
>and sit back and watch her and her attorney get a good tongue
>lashing. and  have  your attorney prepared to ask for child
>support based on the states guideline plus arrears payable by
>income deduction.

Judge told atty's to agree on amount and enter a seperate order. My atty worked it up according to guidelines under the premise that she was only earning  the small amount she , as "claimed" but not yet supported by documentation. We still haven't received discovery and have to file a 2nd motion to compel.
 Her atty refused to even respond to my attys letter trying to confirm the support amount, so now we are going to ask that the Judge just go ahead and order it.
My issue is that won't the judge see that here is an NCP mom who is working, knows that support is a  legal ( if not moral) imperative and both ignores the court, has an atty that ignores another atty  and doesnt send a dime....just creates more legal bills intentionally.
I hope that after 2 motions to compel and having to have support ordered that they will impute at least a 40 hr week at minimum wage since she never supplied discovery to support the claim of less hours or pay ....and hope they will award atty fee's and court costs to me, as none of this is my doing.
Unfortunetly she has an atty who is churning fees by tellling her to never ever talk to me, run everything thru her. I try to tell her that if we can talk and agree on things THEN tell your atty and they will draw up the agreement, but after a year, it is still all atty all the time.

[Kitty C.]

....that's HER problem, not yours.  But whether the judge orders her to pay some or all of your legal fees is a different matter altogether.  I suppose it depends on how much she pisses off the judge.  I would make certain that your atty. informs the court that the BM is adamantly unwilling to discuss anything except through the attys., therefore running up frivilous legal fees.  That might change the judge's mind.

If you have a decent judge who is willing to spread the responsibility evenly, hopefully he will stick it to her.  But like I also said previously, make DAMN sure that any CS order is by garnishment and that there are specific legal repercussions stated in the order if she doesn't pay regularly, like if she quits or gets fired (maybe loss of license) and being delinquent over 3 months (jail time).  Talk to your atty. about this, though.............he/she would have a better idea what can be done in your jurisdiction.

[notnew]

Your attorney could file a Motion for Sanctions for failure to comply with reasonable discovery requests. Also, a Motion to Compel.

Your attorney should start asking for your STBX to be responsible for all of your attorney fees associated with this case.

There's nothing you can do to make the court more mad at her. You and your attorney can only go through the legal steps available to you and ask the court to sanction them for their actions.

Her and attorney's actions certainly don't bode well being that you already have custody. I have experience with an attorney who fails to respond and the court has done nothing except chastise in open court. No real consequences. So, it's hit and miss. You've done what you are supposed to do though so don't worry about it.

This is really small stuff trust me.

She is hurting herself by  not paying support. However, the courts seem to be pretty lenient on the female gender in support enforcement, so you may have a long and unsuccessful battle on your hands. Or, she may pony up after all.

This other attorney's actions are meant to anger you and inflame the case. In effect raise the bill and increase filings to make it look like you are the aggressor with legal filings. Be careful about what and how often you file. Pick your battles carefully so what the court sees is the important stuff to avoid them being successful at portraying you as something you are not.

I wish these types of attorney's would slither back down where they came from.

Good luck.