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Questions about court and contempt

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Bdrains

Junior Member
My wife was served with papers on April 2, 2008 from her ex husband stating he wanted to be the custodial parent( he has been the non custodial for 4 years). His papers say he wants to be the custodial parent and her to pay him child support and that she have no rights to the children, and if that doesn't fly then he wants to decrease his child support( he pays $400 a month for two girls 6 and 10). He wishes to decrease child support but has fallen behind over and over, sometimes as much as $3000 and it wasn't because he couldn't afford to pay it, he told her that she didn't deserve his money...(She only uses it for the kids). The thing is he works for his parents at an insulating company and is part owner of the company since 2001, he says he makes less now, then in 2001. I would think he would make a lot more, we just have to prove it. He also has lapses in health insurance which we only found out about when we had to take the oldest to the ER and were told she was uninsured. Anyways we had to get a lawyer since he served her papers and we countered with him being in contempt for non payment of child support and lapses in health insurance. All and all we have like 5 counts of contempt in our papers. Not long after he was served with our papers he called her and told her that all the stuff we had in our papers were lies and that it would be better if we dropped our case... (He only says this because we have solid proof that all the stuff in our papers is true). Now since we haven't dropped our case he has told his lawyer to ignore ALL contact with our lawyer and told my wife "I have the power to delay it or go through with it, and you can't do anything about it". He was the one who served her, but now he wants to delay it when he saw what we had against him. We talked to our lawyer and he told us that to get a court date he would have to contact her ex's lawyer 3 times by certifed mail and on the third attempt if they don't respond then when get a court date. Needless to say the lawyer never responded, even though someone had to sign for those certified letters... and we got out court date 7/25/08. His lawyer was informed that there was a court date and that they both needed to be there. Our lawyer says that they still haven't responded, so what happens if we get to court and the other party doesn't show up? Our lawyers paralegal said that we will get whatever we are asking for by default because they were informed and didn't show? Is this true and what penalties can her ex face for not showing up in court?


Thanks for all your help,

Brad
 


2Mistakes

Senior Member
Brad,

Please read the very first thread in this forum. The one stickied to the top.

Then come back and edit your post accordingly.

Thanks.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
My wife was served with papers on April 2, 2008 from her ex husband stating he wanted to be the custodial parent( he has been the non custodial for 4 years). His papers say he wants to be the custodial parent and her to pay him child support and that she have no rights to the children, and if that doesn't fly then he wants to decrease his child support( he pays $400 a month for two girls 6 and 10). He wishes to decrease child support but has fallen behind over and over, sometimes as much as $3000 and it wasn't because he couldn't afford to pay it, he told her that she didn't deserve his money...(She only uses it for the kids). The thing is he works for his parents at an insulating company and is part owner of the company since 2001, he says he makes less now, then in 2001. I would think he would make a lot more, we just have to prove it. He also has lapses in health insurance which we only found out about when we had to take the oldest to the ER and were told she was uninsured. Anyways we had to get a lawyer since he served her papers and we countered with him being in contempt for non payment of child support and lapses in health insurance. All and all we have like 5 counts of contempt in our papers. Not long after he was served with our papers he called her and told her that all the stuff we had in our papers were lies and that it would be better if we dropped our case... (He only says this because we have solid proof that all the stuff in our papers is true). Now since we haven't dropped our case he has told his lawyer to ignore ALL contact with our lawyer and told my wife "I have the power to delay it or go through with it, and you can't do anything about it". He was the one who served her, but now he wants to delay it when he saw what we had against him. We talked to our lawyer and he told us that to get a court date he would have to contact her ex's lawyer 3 times by certifed mail and on the third attempt if they don't respond then when get a court date. Needless to say the lawyer never responded, even though someone had to sign for those certified letters... and we got out court date 7/25/08. His lawyer was informed that there was a court date and that they both needed to be there. Our lawyer says that they still haven't responded, so what happens if we get to court and the other party doesn't show up? Our lawyers paralegal said that we will get whatever we are asking for by default because they were informed and didn't show? Is this true and what penalties can her ex face for not showing up in court?


Thanks for all your help,

Brad
If they don't show, your wife wins be default. That is true. He may be ordered to pay her attorney fees, but collecting those may be even more difficult than collecting child support.

Quite frankly, if his motion actually said what you say that it said, I am amazed that an attorney would file something like that, because it makes dad look like an idiot. Nevertheless, your wife should not hold out too much hope for a default ruling, other than dad not being taken seriously if he attempts something like that again.

Now, I am going to tell you something that you would have understood if you had read the sticky for newbies.

There is no WE in this situation. Wrap your head around that well, because if you use the term we, us, our or anything similar in court or in front of court professionals, you could actually total your wife's case, even on a default basis.
 

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