emergency custody hearing

[StepmomInSC]

Sir,

We just found out Wednesday Jan 19 that we have been granted an emergency custody hearing for Thursday January 27th.  This is great.  We are more than prepared and so are our lawyers.  It being the weekend and just thinking of these questions was hoping i might get an answer here as i cant call our lawyers until monday.

My questions are

1.  Our lawyer is serving my husbands exwife's  lawyer instead of her because of the time frame.  Does this mean it is her lawyer's responsibility to inform her? And can they do this....not serve her directly?

2.  Is her lawyer legally obligated to tell her? She has never paid him the fees she owes him and he has not been really doing anything for her.  Neither one has formally removed her lawyer from the case.

3.  If he doesnt inform her and he doesnt show for court thursday, would that essentially mean we might be granted custody...or would they postpone it?

Thank you for your help.

[socrateaser]

>My questions are
>
>1.  Our lawyer is serving my husbands exwife's  lawyer instead
>of her because of the time frame.  Does this mean it is her
>lawyer's responsibility to inform her? And can they do
>this....not serve her directly?

Question of SC civil procedure. I can't answer without research. Generally, if the attorney is "of record" in the case and action is pending already, and this is not a contempt proceeding, then service on the attorney would be sufficient. Otherwise, service must be personal.

>
>2.  Is her lawyer legally obligated to tell her? She has never
>paid him the fees she owes him and he has not been really
>doing anything for her.  Neither one has formally removed her
>lawyer from the case.

Sounds to me like you need to serve the party, not the lawyer. The constitutional threshold for all due process is that notice must be "reasonably calculated under all the circumstances to provide notice of a pending action and opportunity to appear and defend." You are basically telling me that there is a reasonable probability that the attorney may ignore your service, so the judge might not accept it.

But, an emergency hearing generally requires only that you make a good faith attempt to contact the other party, so if you can show that you left phone messages, or faxed her and her attorney, etc., then that would be ok.

>3.  If he doesnt inform her and he doesnt show for court
>thursday, would that essentially mean we might be granted
>custody...or would they postpone it?

You're not gonna get custody in an emergency hearing unless you can show credible evidence of irreparable harm to the child. And, if such were the case, you'd be calling the police, not your attorney, so my guess is "no."