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ouyang

Junior Member
Washington - King County.

Hi there.

I've got a trial scheduled in about six weeks, and am not very well-prepared. The cutoff date for filing a motion for continuance is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I don't have counsel. Currently, I am being treated for stress-related anxiety due to a false police report filed by the wife. She admitted she was lying to the cops after they came after me with machine guns, and this is documented in the police report. I was not arrested but was very badly shaken up by the incident.

Because I do not have counsel, I am currently taking a couple classes and writing a research paper (due one week before trial), and am still receiving treatment, do I have a decent chance to have a continuance granted due to circumstances?

I have spoken with an attorney and will borrow money to hire him soon, but the cutoff date for discovery has passed. Will a judge take pity on me and give me an extra month or two to conduct discovery and prepare for trial? Any idea what my chances are?
 


penelope10

Senior Member
Washington - King County.

Hi there.

I've got a trial scheduled in about six weeks, and am not very well-prepared. The cutoff date for filing a motion for continuance is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I don't have counsel. Currently, I am being treated for stress-related anxiety due to a false police report filed by the wife. She admitted she was lying to the cops after they came after me with machine guns, and this is documented in the police report. I was not arrested but was very badly shaken up by the incident.

Because I do not have counsel, I am currently taking a couple classes and writing a research paper (due one week before trial), and am still receiving treatment, do I have a decent chance to have a continuance granted due to circumstances?

I have spoken with an attorney and will borrow money to hire him soon, but the cutoff date for discovery has passed. Will a judge take pity on me and give me an extra month or two to conduct discovery and prepare for trial? Any idea what my chances are?
What was the attorney's advice?
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
Washington - King County.

Hi there.

I've got a trial scheduled in about six weeks, and am not very well-prepared. The cutoff date for filing a motion for continuance is coming up in a couple of weeks, and I don't have counsel. Currently, I am being treated for stress-related anxiety due to a false police report filed by the wife. She admitted she was lying to the cops after they came after me with machine guns, and this is documented in the police report. I was not arrested but was very badly shaken up by the incident.

Because I do not have counsel, I am currently taking a couple classes and writing a research paper (due one week before trial), and am still receiving treatment, do I have a decent chance to have a continuance granted due to circumstances?

I have spoken with an attorney and will borrow money to hire him soon, but the cutoff date for discovery has passed. Will a judge take pity on me and give me an extra month or two to conduct discovery and prepare for trial? Any idea what my chances are?
What police department anywhere in the US uses machine guns?

Seriously folks, can anyone here state that their local police department has machine guns and uses them? Even swat teams don't have machine guns.
 

ouyang

Junior Member
What police department anywhere in the US uses machine guns?

Seriously folks, can anyone here state that their local police department has machine guns and uses them? Even swat teams don't have machine guns.
Yes, they do. AR-15s, M4 carbines, HK MP-5s, etc. These are fully automatic weapons (or selective fire), i.e. "machine guns."

Here's an article on the NYPD's Baghdad-style policing policy:

CITY COPS PREP FOR 'MUMBAI' - New York Post

When these are pointed at you, it is not pleasant.
 
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Ohiogal

Queen Bee
The problem is you should have been working on getting an attorney all this time. If you couldnt' have an attorney you should have been representing yourself as an attorney would have. That is the standard. You don't get a freebie because the judge knows you are pro se. What you MIGHT get is your counsel getting an agreement from OTHER counsel regarding a countinuance and extending discovery time but they do NOT have to do that.
 

ouyang

Junior Member
The problem is you should have been working on getting an attorney all this time. If you couldnt' have an attorney you should have been representing yourself as an attorney would have. That is the standard. You don't get a freebie because the judge knows you are pro se. What you MIGHT get is your counsel getting an agreement from OTHER counsel regarding a countinuance and extending discovery time but they do NOT have to do that.
I couldn't afford an attorney, and effective pro se is difficult when you have obligations of childcare, school and work. What's more, I don't know procedure. Didn't spend years in law school, ya know.

So I guess that's how it goes, eh? Can't afford justice and you're screwed on procedural rules...

Very convenient system for attorneys.
 

mistoffolees

Senior Member
I couldn't afford an attorney, and effective pro se is difficult when you have obligations of childcare, school and work. What's more, I don't know procedure. Didn't spend years in law school, ya know.

So I guess that's how it goes, eh? Can't afford justice and you're screwed on procedural rules...

Very convenient system for attorneys.
Sorry, but that doesn't fly. You have a choice - learn to do it yourself or pay someone to do it for you.

I don't know how to fix my car if it breaks. I pay a mechanic. I could learn to do it, but paying a mechanic is a better use of my time.

I don't know how to fix the plumbing in my house. I pay a plumber. I could learn to do it, but paying a plumber is a better use of my time.

I don't know all the procedures for filing a divorce suit. I pay an attorney. I could learn to do it, but paying an attorney is a better use of my time.

Get it? YOU choose one of the following:
1. Pay someone to do it right.
2. Learn to do it right.
or
3. Do it badly.

It's not the system's problem if you mess up.
 

ouyang

Junior Member
Sorry, but that doesn't fly. You have a choice - learn to do it yourself or pay someone to do it for you.

I don't know how to fix my car if it breaks. I pay a mechanic. I could learn to do it, but paying a mechanic is a better use of my time.

I don't know how to fix the plumbing in my house. I pay a plumber. I could learn to do it, but paying a plumber is a better use of my time.

I don't know all the procedures for filing a divorce suit. I pay an attorney. I could learn to do it, but paying an attorney is a better use of my time.

Get it? YOU choose one of the following:
1. Pay someone to do it right.
2. Learn to do it right.
or
3. Do it badly.

It's not the system's problem if you mess up.
Yes it is the system's fault. It is far too complex for a layman to do it right without a lot of support, and that doesn't exist. What's more, the transparency sucks. That is a HUGE part of the issue. The court should give all civil litigants in family law a book of relevant rules and warnings, or at least tell them where to find this info.

I can't even find my damned case schedule (didn't know how important it was to discovery, etc. until recently). All I know is court dates and I get letters in the mail a couple weeks before things come up.

What happens is that people go through divorce and the one with the cash or some other circumstantial advantage wins. That's life, but it isn't justice, and I would laugh bitterly if anyone here told me that it was.

And BTW, your plumber and mechanic comparison is apt only in that it underscores the soulless, mechanical nature of the contemporary American legal system.
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
Yes it is the system's fault.
So have you tried in all this time to learn? Did you read the rules of civil procedures? Did you read the local rules?

It is far too complex for a layman to do it right without a lot of support, and that doesn't exist
WRONG! It does exist in a variety of ways -- there are literally hundreds of free websites out there to work with people.

What's more, the transparency sucks. That is a HUGE part of the issue. The court should give all civil litigants in family law a book of relevant rules and warnings, or at least tell them where to find this info.
WRONG. You could ask for such a book. Most courthouses have LAW LIBRARIES. You could have asked the librarian. You could have gone to your local library. Heck Barnes and Noble has books of civil procedure as does Amazon and Borders. Should I continue? You didn't want to know and all you wanted to do is have an excuse. Oh well.

I can't even find my damned case schedule (didn't know how important it was to discovery, etc. until recently). All I know is court dates and I get letters in the mail a couple weeks before things come up.
Oh well. NOt our problem. There is a schedule in the rules of civil procedure. YOUR IGNORANCE is not our fault. Nor is it the court's.


What happens is that people go through divorce and the one with the cash or some other circumstantial advantage wins. That's life, but it isn't justice, and I would laugh bitterly if anyone here told me that it was.
You are wrong again. The one with the most cash doesn't win. Many many many pro se individuals have won. Why? Because they decided to educate themselves and not host a pity party for themself. YOU have decided that the world OWES you. Well the world owes you SQUAT.

And BTW, your plumber and mechanic comparison is apt only in that it underscores the soulless, mechanical nature of the contemporary American legal system.
And yet people who are not mechanics can fix a car and people who are not plumbers can fix their pipes. And people who are not lawyers CAN represent themselves properly.
 

mistoffolees

Senior Member
And BTW, your plumber and mechanic comparison is apt only in that it underscores the soulless, mechanical nature of the contemporary American legal system.
If it's so mechanical, it should be easy to learn how to use it, yet you've made no real effort.

Just what do you expect? One person walks into court, signs a one page piece of paper and they have a divorce and all their child custody, asset, support, and other issues are magically resolved? No need for rules of evidence. No need for court guidelines. No need for decisions involving custody. It all just magically resolves itself and everyone is magically happy with the outcome.

I wish i lived in your world where no effort is required for perfect results.
 

ouyang

Junior Member
And yet people who are not mechanics can fix a car and people who are not plumbers can fix their pipes. And people who are not lawyers CAN represent themselves properly.
Well, you do have a point there. But you guys are being unnecessarily harsh. Do you understand how it feels to face losing your children? You know that's what this is all about, and if you work in the business please try to grow a heart, or a soul, or whatever else it is you are lacking.

I've fixed my own car, my own pipes, and tomorrow I'll be in court filing motions myself. Don't know how it will turn out, but I AM trying. Please try to understand why this is so difficult for people. You attorneys chose this job, and yet you seem to take pleasure in rubbing people's faces in the crap you supposedly want to sort out. What does that say?

Anyway, that's enough venting on my part. I did come here for help, so I should probably make an effort to be more civil. But believe me, it is very hard under these circumstances. I am all alone, and my children are pretty much the only thing that matters in my life at this point. Losing them would be a more painful experience than most of you will ever face until you stare the grim reaper straight in the eye.
 

mistoffolees

Senior Member
You're making a lot of assumptions. First, I'm not an attorney. Second, I DID face losing my daughter. As in a lot of cases, my ex made some wild accusations which, if they were true, could have prevented me from spending very much time with my daughter.

However, precisely because my daughter is so important to me, I made sure I was adequately represented. I would have done anything to get the money to hire an attorney because I did not believe I could have done as good a job as a professional and it was important to me.

If I had elected to do it on my own, I would have done everything in my power to learn everything about it. When getting advice from people, I would have listened rather than flat out rejecting it as you have done. I would certainly have been a lot more polite with the people I was requesting help from.
 

ouyang

Junior Member
You're making a lot of assumptions. First, I'm not an attorney. Second, I DID face losing my daughter. As in a lot of cases, my ex made some wild accusations which, if they were true, could have prevented me from spending very much time with my daughter.

However, precisely because my daughter is so important to me, I made sure I was adequately represented. I would have done anything to get the money to hire an attorney because I did not believe I could have done as good a job as a professional and it was important to me.

If I had elected to do it on my own, I would have done everything in my power to learn everything about it. When getting advice from people, I would have listened rather than flat out rejecting it as you have done. I would certainly have been a lot more polite with the people I was requesting help from.
I was quite polite until someone suggested I was full of sh*t for writing that cops came after me with machine guns due to a false 911 call. It happened, and it's in the police report.

I did get an attorney, and I'm feeling a lot better about things, but you know the emotional ups and downs of this stuff. Actually, since you're a parent who faced the loss of a child, I'm sure you know exactly how it feels. Add the fear of being shot full of holes to that and you know where I'm coming from.
 
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