I'm in contempt but it's not my fault

[melissa3]

I have a court order to pay child support arrears out of my retirement account.

I got the court order on the 6th of March and sent the withdrawal request form, to the company I have my account with, on the next day, March 7th.

I have copies of the withdrawal request form and a copy of the post office receipt from when I sent it. I scanned and emailed these copies to my ex and my lawyer, who fowarded them to my ex's lawyer.

My ex still has not recieved the money and her lawyer filed comtempt against me. The company has a disclaimer on their form that says "request must be proccessed within 60 days"

There is nothing more I can do.

1. Can I be found in contempt even though I followed the court order?

2. Can I be held resposible for the slow response from the company that has my account??

Thanks

[socrateaser]

>There is nothing more I can do.
>
>1. Can I be found in contempt even though I followed the court
>order?

I don't know. Post the EXACT TEXT OF THE COURT ORDER.


>
>2. Can I be held resposible for the slow response from the
>company that has my account??

See above.

[melissa3]

Soc, I apologize

I was previously found in contempt of child support. This is the court order from that hearing.

Court Order dated March 6th, 2006

"Defendant is to pay from retirement account the sum of:
1. $xxx defendants attorneys fees and costs
2. $xxx court fees
3. $xxxx arrears
4. $xxx  future child support

All of these to be paid to Plaintiff on or by March 13, 2006."

That's it.

Like I said, I mailed everthing the day after the hearing so now I'm just waiting for my request to be processed.

1. Can I be found in contempt even though I followed the court order?

2. Can I be held resposible for the slow response from the company that has my account??

[socrateaser]

>1. Can I be found in contempt even though I followed the court
>order?

Assuming that you have done all that you could reasonably do, in order to obtain the funds from your retirement account, if your employer has not responded in time, this does not mean that you are in willful and conscious disregard of the court's order. Therefore you are not in contempt.
>
>2. Can I be held resposible for the slow response from the
>company that has my account??

No. See above. I'm surprised that the other attorney would seek another contempt motion under the circumstances. But, not having read the precise documents that you sent, I can't evaluate the rationale for his quick response (other than possibly to get a few more bucks from his client, who will want to try to recover from you).

[melissa3]

I made a mistake in my previous post. I am the defendant, my ex is the plaintiff, and I am to pay for her attorney fees out of my account.

So, as you can see, she already has me reimbursing her for her costs.



I believe the motion for contempt is just another one of my ex's attempts to make it impossible for me to see my daughter again. She has brought what seems like almost every motion she/her lawyer could think of.

Her motions include:
1. Significant Other not allowed around during visitation
2. my visititation to be suspended/supervised due to alleged drug abuse
3. drug evaluation
4. increase in child support
5. for me to pay for all medical bills
6. contempt of child support

These, in order as they are listed, were all submitted over the course of 6 months, starting from when I became involved with my SO.

My ex is burying me fiancially to prolong me (or should I say my SO) from seeing my daughter. She has admitted she is perfectly content with raising our daughter by herself.


Question:

1.This may be a long shot, but is there any legal way to prove that my ex is maliciously using the court system against me?

P.S. I'm not getting my hopes up but it sure would be nice if there was a legal way to end my ex's tyranny.

[socrateaser]

>I made a mistake in my previous post. I am the defendant, my
>ex is the plaintiff, and I am to pay for her attorney
>fees out of my account.
>
>So, as you can see, she already has me reimbursing her for her
>costs.

I realize you're the defendant in a contempt action. I wasn't addressing previous requests for legal fees -- I was addressing the possibility of be required to reimburse for this latest contempt -- I think you should be able to get fees from her, because based on your facts, her contempt motion is frivolous, and I don't really understand why her attorney would file so quickly. I suggest that this may actually turn out to be a smoking gun with which you could prove abuse of legal process in civil court -- which I will address below.


>Question:
>
>1.This may be a long shot, but is there any legal way to prove
>that my ex is maliciously using the court system against me?

If all of the listed actions were resolved in your favor, or dismissed as unmeritorious, then you should have a case for the tort of abuse of legal process. This is the use of litigation for an improper purpose, such as to vex, annoy and harrass, not directly related to the merits of the litigation itself.

But, as I just said, all (or mostly all) of the actions brought by your opponent must be resolved in your favor. If true, then you can sue her in civil court, where she will have to pay her own attorney fees to defend. The only way that this makes sense is if your ex has assets that you can recover damages from (like a home, or investment accounts, etc.). If not, you'll just be wasting your time. But, if so, you may even be able to get an attorney to take your case on a contingency if he/she believes it will be easy to prove and collect on.

[melissa3]

Re-cap:

It has come to my attention that I can be held in contempt because there is a specified date in the court order on which I promised my ex would recieve the money by.

Few months ago, I was first found in contempt of CS, so I was ordered to withdraw from my account. Now my ex is bringing contempt against me again becuase the withdrawl request wasnt processed in time to satisfy the court order.

I don't have any experience with legalities of family court/law but it doesn't seem right for me to be held responsible for something that is essentially out of my hands.

Question:

1. Besides the receipts I have, is there anymore I could do to prove this contempt is not willfull??

2. What, exactly, could happen if I was found in contempt again?

Thanks

[socrateaser]

>Re-cap:
>
>It has come to my attention that I can be held in
>contempt because there is a specified date in the court order
>on which I promised my ex would recieve the money by.
>
>Few months ago, I was first found in contempt of CS, so I was
>ordered to withdraw from my account. Now my ex is bringing
>contempt against me again becuase the withdrawl request wasnt
>processed in time to satisfy the court order.
>
>I don't have any experience with legalities of family
>court/law but it doesn't seem right for me to be held
>responsible for something that is essentially out of my
>hands.
>
>Question:
>
>1. Besides the receipts I have, is there anymore I could do to
>prove this contempt is not willfull??

There's nothing else you need. If you have done everything reasonably possible to get the money, and the only thing that is holding up payment is the plan administrator's failure to pay, then you could subpoena a representative of the employer's plan to testify on your behalf and to state that they are processing payment, but they're not finished.

That would do it.

>
>2. What, exactly, could happen if I was found in contempt
>again?

Fines, jail time, community service, judgment of conviction on the record, which would make future employment much more difficult and ruin your credit record, assuming that you have a good one.

You have an attorney, and you appear quite frightened. You need to discuss the matter with him/her and make certain that you haven't left something out that's causing me to misinterpret your risk.

But, from what you're posting, you have a number of ways to demonstrate that you're not in contempt, and perhaps to have the other party found to be abusing the legal process.

So, stop acting like a defendant, and start acting like a plaintiff. Start some legal actions of your own and fight back.

[melissa3]

Too bad you weren't stationed in MA and were up for hire.

It is my attorney who is stating the judge may still find me in contempt.

It is my attorney who is claiming it isn't likely that I could prove my ex is abusing the system.

It is my attorney who is saying the odds are stacked against me and there isnt much I can do to stop my ex. He also said that the judge is not going to do me any favors considering the way the case has been going.

First mistake was I previously had a sh*t-for-brains lawyer who did a number on my case. Now my present lawyer is trying to clean house while defending me at the same time.

I am frightened I'll go to jail which would make seeing my daughter again virtually impossible.

Questions:

In one of my previous posts I explained my ex supposedly has a tape of me taking my presciption meds. Due to the existence of that tape and a failed drug screen, ofcourse, my judge is forcing me to undergo supervised visitation and a substance abuse evaluation (both of which have proved to be very expensive).

My old lawyer saw the tape but I have never seen it (or knew of it's existence prior to court), the judge never saw it and neither has my present lawyer. You mentioned that my lawyer should've questioned the legality of the tape.

1. Can my present lawyer raise an objection to the tape, since he hasn't veiwed its contents, and the evalutation?

[socrateaser]

>Too bad you weren't stationed in MA and were up for hire.
>
>It is my attorney who is stating the judge may still find me
>in contempt.
>
>It is my attorney who is claiming it isn't likely that I could
>prove my ex is abusing the system.
>
>It is my attorney who is saying the odds are stacked against
>me and there isnt much I can do to stop my ex. He also said
>that the judge is not going to do me any favors considering
>the way the case has been going.
>
>First mistake was I previously had a sh*t-for-brains lawyer
>who did a number on my case. Now my present lawyer is trying
>to clean house while defending me at the same time.
>
>I am frightened I'll go to jail which would make seeing my
>daughter again virtually impossible.
>
>Questions:
>
>In one of my previous posts I explained my ex supposedly has a
>tape of me taking my presciption meds. Due to the
>existence of that tape and a failed drug screen, ofcourse, my
>judge is forcing me to undergo supervised visitation and a
>substance abuse evaluation (both of which have proved to be
>very expensive).
>
>My old lawyer saw the tape but I have never seen it (or knew
>of it's existence prior to court), the judge never saw it and
>neither has my present lawyer. You mentioned that my lawyer
>should've questioned the legality of the tape.
>
>1. Can my present lawyer raise an objection to the tape, since
>he hasn't veiwed its contents, and the evalutation?

The tape is not currently at issue. The issue is whether or not you are in contempt for non payment under the terms of the court order. Based on your post of the order and your stated facts, you cannot possibly be found in contempt, unless the judge chooses to simply ignore the law.

Could that happen? Of course, but I don't go into court thinking that a judge intends to ignore the law, because if I do, then I may as well not go into court ever again.

If you have applied for the money, and you can prove, by subpoenaing the custodian of records for the retirement plan, that you have applied for the money and your application is being processed, then that is absolute proof that you are not willfully in contempt.

Now, as a practical matter, it may be cheaper for you to take a cash advance from a credit card and pay off the judgment, and then take the money from your retirement to pay off the credit card, because it will avoid any more litigation on this particular issue.

But, if you can't borrow the money to pay the debt, then you're stuck waiting.

As for the issue of whether your ex has abused the legal process or not, I've already explained what's necessary to prove that. Such a case would be heard by an entirely different judge, and completely outside of family court. Your ex would likely have to retain a different lawyer and she'd have to pay for her defense from her own pocket, which would cause her to be far more interested in settling than she would be in family court.

So, it's just a question of how the past motions/actions were resolved. If you won them all, then you have a case. Otherwise, you don't. That's practically the entire analysis, except that you'll have to show how you were deprived of access to your child during the time.

Would the tape of you taking drugs make a jury (yes, a jury would hear this case), suspect that you are a liar? Maybe.

You can defuse a lot of that by submitting to a polygraph. This also might be good in family court.

But, you may not be telling the whole story here, and I may not have all of the objective facts. Personally, I'd likely tell my ex to shove the tape where the sun don't shine, assuming that you were taking a prescription drug, because if she puts it in evidence in your family law action, and you are later prosecuted on some criminal drug charge, well, then you'll never get another decent job and you won't be able to pay her any support. So, she'll be shooting herself right in the pocketbook.

Anyway, I think that's about enough on this topic. Yours is the sort of case that is extremely fact specific. If I am misunderstanding or you are misrepresenting even the smallest detail, you will end up with bad advice here. So, I'm afraid that if you don't care for your current lawyer, then you need to find another, and then hopefully be able to rely on your lawyer's candid advice.