What to do?

[tnangma]

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

My son has asked me to help him out. Here is the situation:

* Son and wife married for 1 year. He is in National Guard, on alert for deployment to Iraq this summer.
* Both are unemployed. She has not worked. He has worked occasionally, and gets drill pay.
* They are expecting with a March 31 due date.
* She moved home to IL in Sept. 08. (They were living in a camper with no utilities.)
* She has filed for divorce in IL, sole custody, supervised visitation. No alimony, child support. There has never been any domestic abuse problems, so we're not sure why there should be supervised visitation.

We have consulted:

* The Guard Armory. The JAG attorney is now in the DA's office, and has deployment orders.
* A local attorney recommended by the Sgt. Receptionist said he was not licensed in IL and suggested we contact IL legal aid.
* The Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation. Since he has never been to IL, and there was no "jurisdiction", he did not qualify for assistance in IL. He was referred to the SIU self-help website.


He does not want to contest the divorce. He wants to request a paternity test and with a positive result, want joint custody and will pay child support, etc.

The questions:

1. Are there any other legal aid resources he hasn't contacted? He is unemployed and his relatives are not able to help out financially.

2. If there are no other legal representation options, what do we do now?

3. What are the most common chain of events if he files the response using the form available on the self-help website.

4. Should he include a drill schedule with the response and will the court schedule proceedings based on his availability. (He is 5 hours from the county in IL that the divorce was filed in.)

Thanks in advance for any advice or opinions.

 

[mistoffolees]

If he is deployed, the entire thing goes on hold. She can not obtain a divorce while he is overseas. The whole thing will be on hold until the child is born, anyway. He will need to notify the court of those facts.

Jurisdiction is tricky. JAG is correct that IL has no jurisdiction over him, but it is the proper place for her to file (since she has been there long enough to establish residency). IL has jurisdiction over her and, after the child is born, the child. Basically, IL can't force him to appear, but if he ever wants to see his child, he'll need to go and will need an attorney licensed in IL.

Alimony will not be an issue with such a short marriage. Her offer is nothing special since the court wouldn't award alimony anyway.

Child support is tricky. She can agree now not to ask for child support, but then file for support as soon as the ink is dry on the decree. Basically, he's going to be paying child support, so he'd better get used to it and might as well get it included in the divorce.

If there is no history of abuse or reason to consider him a flight risk, there is no reason for supervised visitation. She can ask for it, but it is unlikely that the court would order it. Legally, he has as much right to the child as she does, but, as a practical matter, if he's likely to be deployed and the child is an infant, he may have to live with her having primary physical custody - at least until his life is more settled. HOWEVER, make sure you understand the difference between legal custody and physical custody. There is absolutely no reason why she should get sole LEGAL custody. He should absolutely ask for joint legal custody. Then, figure out what makes most sense for physical custody. 50:50 is becoming more common, but with them living in different states and him being deployed, that's not likely, IMHO.

He can certainly request a paternity test if he has reason for suspicion. He can make that request through the court.

Legal options:
1. First, he needs to be absolutely certain to respond to everything he's given. If he has no other option, spend a lot of time in the library learning the procedures in IL to make sure he does it right. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Since he's not working much, he should have time. HOWEVER, I consider self-help in a contested case to be the very last resort since it's so prone to mistakes.
2. Call Land of Lincoln again. Sometimes you get a different answer if you talk to a different person. Although he isn't in IL, the case clearly belongs there, so he has to defend himself there.
3. Talk to JAG. If he's deployed, they should definitely get involved. Even if he's not employed, a few more phone calls might help. His commanding officer might be able to help pull some strings, too.
4. See if there's a law school near where she has filed. Sometimes law schools allow students to help with a case. They can not represent you, but they may be able to help answer questions, etc. It will also be a good place to learn the IL law.
5. Get the yellow pages for her area (or look it up online). Call some attorneys. Some will give him an initial consultation at no charge to lay out what they would do and how much it might cost. Some attorneys will give him a payment plan. Some will even work for free (although this is not common, it sometimes happens and the likelihood of his being deployed may help).
6. He needs to get a job and earn some money to pay for an attorney. Even a lousy job will help with the expenses. Since she has moved, even two jobs wouldn't be out of the question. A mistake at this stage can be horrendously expensive for the rest of his life, so he may just have to make sacrifices.

 

[tnangma]

Thank You!

Thank You Mistoffolees!

We will continue the search for an attorney by following your suggestions. You have given us a little hope that someone may be able to help, and you have provided us the sense of direction and focus we needed.

I was ready to begin the long process of answering all of the sentences in the file, using the guidelines from the self-help packet. The 30-day deadline has us a bit rattled, and having the baby due, planning a trip to see the baby when we get the call that he's on his way, and everything else, just seemed overwhelming! Thank you so much for your time!

PS: I work for a non-profit theater. We were one of the first 4 regional theaters in the US licensed to do CATS. Mr. Mistoffolees was one of my favorites. You've picked a noble screen name.