lostmother3 said:
ok so I'm back from my meeting with my lawyer and basically he says that the document I recieved was from what he sees is just a scare tactic. He says that my X would have a major up hill battle trying to prove after 8 years of not wanting to have parenting time that he recieve majority of parenting time also that he would have slim chance of proving that she belongs with him and not me. Unless of course that she was in abusive environment.which shes not!! So now to try to figure out weather to continue the court case as it is and persue the 733 per month or lower the amount with certian stipulations, I believe that it is in the best interest of my child that I request a lower amount so that he not try to persue out of state visitation and if he does so that he must first seek therepy for himself and when hes done so that he see a therpist with our child. My intent here is not to take him for all his money but to keep my child as safe as posible. Am I stupid for not continuing the original cs case? Because giving in to the scare tactic was the reason for him to try to pull this on me in the first place.By the way my lawyer also cannot believe that his lawyer would even have written this up in the first place he belives either his lawyer was givin false info or doesnt care about his client knowing that his allegations were false.
Part of me wants to tell you to not give in to scare tactics/blackmail.
HOWEVER....financially its probably wiser to negotiate. Example: You agree to 500.00 instead of 733.00. It might possibly cost you two years worth of the difference between 500.00 and 733.00 to fight this case to the end...or even more. Its also possible however that a judge would consider dad's case frivilous enough that (if your attorney asks) that the judge might order dad to pay YOUR legal fees.
If it were me.....I would hire the attorney and instruct him/her to write a response that fully refutes dad's case (emphasizing that the case was filed right after a very significant child support increase, on top of dad's non-involvement with the child)...AND ask the judge to order that dad be required to pay your legal fees.
After that has had time to sink in with dad and his attorney, THEN, have your attorney start negotiating.
I can honestly understand ncp parents going into "panic mode" when faced with an increase that substantial. However, I have very little respect for the attorneys who "egg them on". In the end, this one is a total loser for dad. In a best case scenario he is going to end up with the same CS that has been ordered now....and he is going to spend alot of money in legal fees to end up with that result. In your case he also might end up with a relationship with his child if he really wants that...but NOT primary custody or anything remotely close to that. That may be a positive for both dad and the child....but its not going to change the financial aspects for dad.
In a worse case scenario he could end up paying your attorney too....and a visitation order that he won't exercise if he really doesn't care.