Please read and advise, we are running out of time!!!!

[bird27]

Last month I went to court with my ex wife over a minor issue. The judge made his decision and asked my ex wife's attorney to write up the new order. Court adjourned, and I went home. I found out later that my ex wife's attorney pulled my attorney back in front of the judge, after we had gone home, saying he had "forgotten" to ask for an increase in child support. My attorney refused to agree, saying that my income has not increased at least 15% (it has only gone up 6%). The judge told them that if an agreement could not be met, my ex wife would have to petition for an increase.
So ex's attorney sends the ammendment on the minor court issue he wrote up to our attorney, and we see that he has gone ahead and added an increase in support anyway, despite my attorney's protests and the judges advice. On top of that, he miscalculated the pay periods and has erroneously set the new support higher than it should be, giving my ex an extra $777 a year. Also, he miscalculated the credit I am owed for the extra time I have our 3 children, which is 72 extra days a year above standard visitation. He also retroed it back to August 1, which is before we were even in court. The increase adds up to a 6% increase, not the minimum 15% that law says income has to increase/decrease to have support modified.
Our attorney would have appealed this ammendment, but he faxed it to her on August 30th after her firm had closed... and it shows it was sent to the judge on Aug. 20TH! We would have had 10 days to appeal but he waited until those 10 days were up to even let us read what he wrote up, so now we can't appeal it.
Our attorney is "working on it" but has not returned our calls, and it has been almost two weeks. My wife and I are really uneasy, and according to my EX wife, I am now behind in support because I have not paid her the new amount. Our attorney has told us nothing but that she is working on it and to keep paying the old amount. I am worried that in the courts eyes I am behind in support, something that has never happened inthe 3 years I have been paying.
We are really stressed and hoped someone would have some advice on what we should do. Is this legal what he did, or just shady, or neither? Have we just fallen victim to a crafty attorney? Is there anything we can do? Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to offer.
 

 

[SLYarnell]

post this on the legal forum, Ask Soc...

be sure to follow his guidelines

[4honor]

Next, realize that you can still appeal based on the fact that the order that was sent to the judge was not what was ordered from the bench. I do hope you requested the proceedings be recorded or taped in some way. Get the transcript and appeal. Also, the date the order was recevied in your attorney's office should be stamped on the top of the pages... thereby supporting your contentions that your attorney was unable to view the order before it went to the judge for signature.

Appeal is from date of SERVICE, not date of order and as far as I know,  you cannot effectuate service by fax unless it is court ordered or stipulated to by both parties. Have you been served yet with the papers? Has your attorney on your behalf?

I am not saying you will effectively thwart this attorney's attempts to slam you, but you are stressing too much.

My advice:
1. Get the tape of the hearing
2. get it transcribed
3. balance the verbal instructions of the judge with what made it into the file.
4. file against the adverse attorney for his conduct with the state bar or other entities
5. Take the order that had extras. Pull the extras out and retype it in the same format, then have it ready for  signature when you get back into court on this appeal/reconsideration.
6. Request your attorney's fees for setting right the underhanded way the adverse attorney did this.

[bird27]

Whew... ok, calming down.  Spoke with our attorney's secretary this afternoon, all she would say was that our attorney has "filed an objection" and she will have more info at our appointment on September 14th...
To answer your questions.... ex wifes attorney faxed over the "order" to MY attorney on August 30th... no judges signature on it... yet the date on the order he wrote said it was filed August 20th... As far as an official "serving of papers", no, my attorney nor myself has been actually served with the order with the judges signature.... we only received a copy of what he supposedly sent in on the 20th... 10 days after he says he sent it to be signed...
Our attorney DID mention getting a copy of the transcripts of court that day... however, a record of the judge telling shady attorney to repetition for an increase was not on the record, court had been adjourned and court reporter had already left.
I am very interested in the steps to take after this is resolved to acknowlege what this attorney has attempted to do.  Who would be in charge of filing a complaint, or should my attorney handle that as well?