What does prejudice to other party mean in a motion to file judgement?

[Talos]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

Details are long but I can provide more if needed. The just of it, we had a custody/parenting time hearing back in Dec. We came to an agreement, with both parties and their lawyers signing it. In this court the Plaintiffs lawyer is left with writing that agreement up into an order, forwarding to the other lawyer, for my lawyer and I to sign. And then the Plaintiff's lawyer files that into court and the Judge signs off on it. All this was suppose to be done by Jan 14th when we had our child support hearing, because the parenting time order needed to be done in order to calculate overnights. She didn't have it done.

Jan 14th child support hearing, the Ref just used the agreement since his lawyer still had not done the order. She told her it was suppose to be already done and she better have it done and forwarded to my lawyer by the end of the week. Child support was calculated, all parties signed, Ref sent it to the Judge. The child support order was signed by Judge on Jan 18th 2013.

2 weeks ago my lawyer finally received the typed order for custody/parenting time from his lawyer. Since that time my lawyer has sent numerous emails and has made numerous calls to this lawyer, with no response. The order she typed up is not the agreement we signed, it's not the recommendation that the investigator sent, it has all kinds of added things, she even added a whole new child support order, which is not anywhere near the child support order that was just done in Jan.

March 21 2013-his lawyer filed a motion to have this typed order entered as a judgement and filed something about prejudice to her client.

What is prejudice? I have no clue and my lawyer said their is no prejudice, she did question me about the current agreement and if I have been following it. But never did explain exactly what prejudice is or what it could be.

 

[single317dad]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

Details are long but I can provide more if needed. The just of it, we had a custody/parenting time hearing back in Dec. We came to an agreement, with both parties and their lawyers signing it. In this court the Plaintiffs lawyer is left with writing that agreement up into an order, forwarding to the other lawyer, for my lawyer and I to sign. And then the Plaintiff's lawyer files that into court and the Judge signs off on it. All this was suppose to be done by Jan 14th when we had our child support hearing, because the parenting time order needed to be done in order to calculate overnights. She didn't have it done.

Jan 14th child support hearing, the Ref just used the agreement since his lawyer still had not done the order. She told her it was suppose to be already done and she better have it done and forwarded to my lawyer by the end of the week. Child support was calculated, all parties signed, Ref sent it to the Judge. The child support order was signed by Judge on Jan 18th 2013.

2 weeks ago my lawyer finally received the typed order for custody/parenting time from his lawyer. Since that time my lawyer has sent numerous emails and has made numerous calls to this lawyer, with no response. The order she typed up is not the agreement we signed, it's not the recommendation that the investigator sent, it has all kinds of added things, she even added a whole new child support order, which is not anywhere near the child support order that was just done in Jan.

March 21 2013-his lawyer filed a motion to have this typed order entered as a judgement and filed something about prejudice to her client.

What is prejudice? I have no clue and my lawyer said their is no prejudice, she did question me about the current agreement and if I have been following it. But never did explain exactly what prejudice is or what it could be.

Black's Law Dictionary defines prejudice thusly:

PREJUDICE A forejudgment bias; preconceived opinion; A leaning towards one side of a cause for some reason other than a conviction of Its justice.
Willis v State 12 Ga 449 Hungerford v Cushlng 2 Wis 405 State v Anderson 14 Mont 541 37 Pae 1 Hinkle v State 94 Ga 595 21 SE 595 Keen v Brown 40 Fla 487 35 South 401.
The word prejudice seemed to imply nearly the same thing as opinion a prejudgment of the case and not necessarily an enmity or ill will against either party Com v Webster 5 Cush Mass 297 52 Am Dec 711.
Prejudice also means Injury loss or damnification Thus where an offer or admission is made without prejudice or a motion is denied or a bill in equity dismissed without prejudice it Is meant as a declaration that no rights or privileges of the party concerned are to be considered as thereby waived or lost except in so far as may be expressly conceded or decided

In your case, it probably means that the party is making the included statements but is not relinquishing any other rights based on those statements. Possibly, that the agreed order submitted does not mean that the party waives their right to a hearing should the agreement not be ordered in the same form as submitted. If you could post that part of the document exactly as it is written, someone could tell you more exactly what it means.

As to your main question, I've seen that situation resolved with a counter-suit, where both parties have now filed a complaint and submitted a proposed order, and it's left to the parties (or the judge, eventually, if necessary) to determine what can be or has been agreed upon. There are lawyers on the board who may advise otherwise, so wait for more opinions. More importantly, what legal action does YOUR lawyer recommend taking?

 

[Talos]

Black's Law Dictionary defines prejudice thusly:



In your case, it probably means that the party is making the included statements but is not relinquishing any other rights based on those statements. Possibly, that the agreed order submitted does not mean that the party waives their right to a hearing should the agreement not be ordered in the same form as submitted. If you could post that part of the document exactly as it is written, someone could tell you more exactly what it means.

As to your main question, I've seen that situation resolved with a counter-suit, where both parties have now filed a complaint and submitted a proposed order, and it's left to the parties (or the judge, eventually, if necessary) to determine what can be or has been agreed upon. There are lawyers on the board who may advise otherwise, so wait for more opinions. More importantly, what legal action does YOUR lawyer recommend taking?

His lawyer filed the motion to have her proposed order entered as Judgement. They set the date for hearing this Mon April 1. My lawyer contacted his lawyer through email and phone, because she will be out of town and asked for the hearing to be adjourned until April 15th(she will be gone through April 8th, motions are only heard on Mon's, so April 15th would be first Mon available when she returns). She received no reply from his lawyer.

Then she received an add on to the motion filed(not sure the exact term), from his lawyer denying the adjournment because it would be predjuice to her client(the plaintiff and the moving party of the motion filed), postponing the agreement being signed. My lawyer called it BS, she has no idea how moving the hearing 2 weeks later, is prejudice to my ex. Her thoughts are because technically we have no order, which means technically he has no parenting time. But since his lawyer won't answer her she has no clue. My lawyer is emailing this tomorrow, and I could post exact wording. His lawyer will not respond at this point to my lawyer.

So my lawyer is filing a counter motion for the agreement to be entered as Judgement. The agreement we all signed, the agreement the investigator came up with and the agreement the investigator sent in Dec to the Judge. She is also asking for him to pay my lawyer fees, because we should not be in court for this.

The problem is my lawyer can't be at this hearing(as I stated above), she can't file to dismiss, adjourn, postpone, because only the moving party can do that in my court. My lawyer is actually having a fit over this, because she will have to send someone else with me, and his lawyer will attempt to run all over whoever she sends. The Judge is not good in this case, she is Probate Judge who is sitting in to fill caseload, and she just rubber stamps things.

This other lawyer has done numerous things already, including just writing up a Ref recommendation, adding in things to it and sending it off to the Judge to sign. She skipped sending it to my side to view and sign and got away with getting things that were never ordered. Now she is trying it again, only this time(because she has been reamed by my lawyer to not do that again), she has filed it with all these changes. But my lawyer says this Judge is that clueless, that most likely with my lawyer not there on Mon it's going to get signed. Our option after that would be to appeal.

I would like to make sure I know what I'm talking about come Monday, I want to avoid this Judge signing this if I can. I would not bother if my lawyer was going to be there, she is good, I trust her, but she is sweating this out right now and she is not comfortable sending someone with me. I have more questions, but trying to be short and do one at a time. Providing extras information when you all ask me.

 

[Ohiogal]

Actually your attorney needs to make sure that you have representation at your hearing which means she needs to find a replacement who can make the arguments and stand in for her.

 

[single317dad]

Actually your attorney needs to make sure that you have representation at your hearing which means she needs to find a replacement who can make the arguments and stand in for her.

Absolutely agree. Most of what your attorney has done so far seems right to me, and far be it from me to question her tactics. However, you need to be prepared for this hearing to happen (even if it turns out it doesn't), and that means if your attorney isn't going to be there, you need a GOOD replacement. If your attorney thinks there's a real chance that the other side could end up paying fees, then getting a quality substitute shouldn't be a big deal.

 

[Ohiogal]

Absolutely agree. Most of what your attorney has done so far seems right to me, and far be it from me to question her tactics. However, you need to be prepared for this hearing to happen (even if it turns out it doesn't), and that means if your attorney isn't going to be there, you need a GOOD replacement. If your attorney thinks there's a real chance that the other side could end up paying fees, then getting a quality substitute shouldn't be a big deal.

It is not up to OP to get a replacement. It is up to the attorney to make sure her hearings are covered when she is due in court, even if she is doublebooked. So the attorney needs to have back up to cover for her. That responsibility rests with the ATTORNEY and not with OP.

 

[Talos]

It is not up to OP to get a replacement. It is up to the attorney to make sure her hearings are covered when she is due in court, even if she is doublebooked. So the attorney needs to have back up to cover for her. That responsibility rests with the ATTORNEY and not with OP.

She is sending someone with me. But I had to have a different lawyer at the beginning of this case for several hearings, because my lawyer was in court on other cases, it didn't go well. It started going much better when my lawyer was able to do the case. She is sending a different lawyer this time, however my lawyer is not confident at all, not with the way his lawyer is and not with how this court functions and this Judge.

The custody/parenting time investigation hearing, turned into a 5 hour long hearing. We walked out with an agreement that was a page long. His lawyer was suppose to write that page long agreement into an order, send it to my lawyer to review and then we would sign and send it back, his lawyer would then file it. This was strictly on custody/parenting time. A separate hearing for child support was done, that one lasted 6 hours.

She filed an order to be entered as Judgement, which is 12 pages long, and is not the agreement from the investigation hearing. Custody and parenting time take up 6 pages. Then she did a child support order to, we already had a child support hearing, with an order entered and signed by the Judge Jan 2013, which is 2 pages long, standard order, written by the Ref. This new child support order she wants entered as Judgement is 6 pages long, with all kinds of new things added. The wording in both either twists laws in place in Mi or it rewords things and leaves important parts of the laws out and important parts of the current child support order out.

The Judge is just going to sign it, that is what she does, and she will say that my side had their chance to argue these things in the child support hearing and the custody/parenting time hearing. We did argue them, we won, and they were not put into the child support order or the agreement, but here they are back again without the proper process.

My lawyer is 90% positive the Judge is going to sign this. She is not charging me for the work involved to prep for this hearing or for the hearing itself, if this is signed into Judgement. I'm not even sure if my own lawyer actually went to the hearing, that we would get anywhere anyways. Not with this Judge, and not with what has already happened by this other lawyer. The process was not followed in past hearings, and the Judge refused to hear arguments and just signed away. We didn't appeal then, because those were temp orders.

Thanks for the imput so far.

 

[Talos]

Update after hearing today

After denying my lawyer an adjournment last Wed, this lawyer then sent mine an email. She would adjourn if my lawyer agreed to another child support hearing. My lawyer refused.

Got to court with my stand in lawyer today. While waiting for his lawyer to show up(1 hour late), my lawyer's office sent him an email from a stipulation received today from his lawyer.

Stipulation is for the court to enter NOT enter her order into Judgement until the court refers child support immediately back to Friend Of Court for a child support modification, retroactive back to Aug of 2012 and when that is complete, with the new child support order placed in Judgement, instead of the current one she added(which is not even the current one she has in there, she changed it).

Facts
Case was filed by my ex Aug of 2012
Temp order Oct 2012 on child support
Case was referred to FOC for child support hearing Jan 2013
Order for child support was entered Jan 18 2013, signed by Judge, retroactive to date of filing which was Aug of 2012

So we have a child support order already entered that was dated back to filing date of case in Aug 2012, order is signed by Judge, order was put into the MISDU system, child support is being paid.

Your suppose to file for a modification. His lawyer did not, she just added this stipulation to her order she wants entered into Judgement. And wants it to be retroactive back to Aug of 2012.

How can you by-pass filing for a modification and just stick in a stipulation to modify?
Mi only has retroactive to date of filing, can they now go back to Aug of 2012, when that was already covered in the order dated Jan 2013?