Arrearage miscalculations

[jolawanda]

Case is in NJ, kids reside in NJ. We live in NV. Two years ago we had a court order from judge for NJ to perform an audit. They did not and unfortunately we did not push the issue.
We refied our house in Nov and the arrearages stated by NV was 11K as a personal judgment against MR. Jola . NJ says they were 26K with NO personal judgment. So, when we wanted to pay off the 11K to NV they refused to take the monies and directed us back to NJ. Title company would not put the 26 in escrow and give us time to file a motion to enforce that one court order so, we sent the 26K fed exed to NJ.

1.  Can we still file and get an audit to get it cleared up and the correct amount claimed?

2. IF we do that how on earth would we ever recoop the monies?

[socrateaser]

There is no way that I can analyze your incredibly complex set of circumstances based on the thin facts presented. I do remember telling you what to do, once upon a time, but I don't remember what it was I told you to do. LOL!

I don't even know where to begin to ask questions, so you'll have to start from the top. Tell me each little step that has led you to send 26K to NJ CSE.

[jolawanda]

4 years ago NV got the order from NJ to enforce order of garnishment of 128.00 per wk in support and the court ordered amount of 25.00 a wk in arrearage payment. At that time, the arrearages have never been correct.

Mr. Jola contacted NV to get them to contact NJ to order an audit. After 6 months of NV bugging them and NJ never getting anything right. They got ONE audit....NV said that is IT....call it done and by the way we (NV) don't want this case anymore and closed it! We have all those lovely letters.

Mr. Jola missed nearly a years worth of CS at 550.68 a month accumulated, totaling 6600.00 for the year behind. So, that got added to what NV and NJ calculated and the total was around 9K. He got reemployed (he can never get a reduction when he looses his job...ever)

He was ordered to them pay back 28.00 per wk to arrearages which he was doing for a whole year. She got 1K of a tax return also.
So, it should have been deducted and an outstanding balance of around 6500.00 give or take a few bucks.
We never even got notified that NV was back in the picture until we went to refie and there was a personal judgmenet from NV for 11K.

We had filed a quit claim about 6 years ago and removed him from the house title.

Gawd, I hope this helps clear things up....And,  *I* DO** remember what you said to do...You said get your butt back in court and file ( cannot remember the name of the motion) and file contempt charges against NJ.  LOLOLOL ;)
We did not follow your advice, unfortunately. We felt since NV closed the case, it would all be OK...what a huge mistakola!

[socrateaser]

OK, well let's talk about the quitclaim, etc.

Did, Mr. Jola quitclaimed his interest in the property to you prior to NV's filing of a personal judgment lien?

If yes, then you probably just blew it again by sending NJ money, because the NV lien may have been attached to Mr. Jola, but it wasn't attached to your home.

The only reason that the lender wouldn't fund the loan, is because you were both applying to be borrowers on the loan. And, by doing so, you would give NV ammunition to charge that the quitclaim is a fraudulent conveyance, whereas, prior to that, you could simply state that you didn't want to be personally responsible for Mr. Jola's debts.

Now that you have paid the bill, you have lost all of your leverage as far as getting any money back. This doesn't mean that you couldn't file a motion to clarify your support and arrears with NJ, but, it does mean that the 26K that you could have used to pay for legal representation, is now in the hands of your opponent.

Anyway, from the little that I'm reading here, if you want to try to ascertain the real numbers, you should gather up ALL of your receipts for payment, payroll stubs, cancelled checks, etc., and your court orders, then go to a forensic accountant and ask him/her to calculate what you should owe, in cooperation with an attorney that gives the accountant the legal basis for any of the interest and penalties, and then file suit in NJ civil court, stating that NJ CSE calculations are incorrect and that the court should order your account to reflect your calculations and for NJ to refund whatever money is owing.

Now, that will probably cost you about $2,000 for the accountant, and another $5,000 for the attorney, but your calculations are right, and there really is a $20,000 mistake in your favor, then you make $12,000 on the deal.

You really should consider getting legal advice before taking action, rather than the reverse. And, I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about from a NV/NJ attorney(s). 26K is not chump change, or if it is, then why don't you send me $12K for Christmas? No, make it 11K -- that's the limit of the federal gift tax exclusion.

[jolawanda]

The quitclaim was filed way before the judgment was filed. The lawyer we had file the quitclaim made sure we didn't have any judgments before she would file the quitclaim. The NV judgment was definitely not against any property. !UGH!

How can we use the prior court order to force NJ to perform the audit?

Where do ya find a forensic accountant?

Why shouldn't the audit/accoutning that was done for NV from NJ figures they provided carry any weight?

I will make sure and take the 11K under advisement...Thank you for letting me know about that gift limit! LOL

[socrateaser]

Well, I guess by your "UGH!" response, I have hit the nail on the head.

>How can we use the prior court order to force NJ to perform
>the audit?

Well, first you need to post the EXACT text of this order.

>
>Where do ya find a forensic accountant?

First, find an NJ attorney -- he'll find you a forensic accountant.

>
>Why shouldn't the audit/accoutning that was done for NV from
>NJ figures they provided carry any weight?

I don't know, they may, but not until you get them in front of an NJ court. You can't keep going back to NV or NJ CSE -- they're just not geared up to help the obligor parent. You need an attorney to unravel this mess now.

>
>I will make sure and take the 11K under advisement...Thank you
>for letting me know about that gift limit! LOL

If you get more than $5K back, I expect a gratuity. Happy Holidays.