@Isis
I have the actual canceled checks, wire transfer receipts and or bank statement or all three for each months payments showing the transaction. I am missing about 9 months of statements that I have not been able to find. I am hoping that the court will allow me to subpoena her bank statements and records...if they can go back that far...
My question of fraud...maybe not the correct term...is that she filed false statements with the court stating that I had only paid her $410 over the years. She then stood by those claims even when I submitted copies of all the checks, statements etc. to the court. For whatever reason, the court literally asked her if what I had submitted was factual and she said no. The clerk in the family services office told me that because she claimed the copies I sent could be forged and were not real that I now have to go before the judge to have him recognize the payment.Then I guess they adjust the principle balance the currently perceive to be owed and reduce the interest for what I have in fact paid.
The next step is to plead my case about the concealment etc. in the hopes of at least getting some of the interest abated. I do not see how they can charge interest on monies they have not paid and I am not going to get into my opinion that certain factors should matter. I will have to just see what the judge decides after he/she sees that I was paying my support on time in full until she disappeared. Then I guess I start paying the court for the years my daughter was missing.
If you have any guidelines to help in this process I would certainly love to have them or any suggestions.
@ Prosperpina
I would like to know seriously what you think I could have done based on what I was told by the clerk of the court when I did call? Every attorney and P.I. I talked to wanted a very large retainer which I did not have. I am not being facetious here...I really want to know what a laymen was supposed to do when he lived out of state, was not physically there to do certain things physically, and the clerk advised me to get an attorney and P.I. neither of which could I afford?
I wrote to the old address, called her family and friends that I knew and had numbers for...remember I really did not know this girl and was not in her inner circle. Her family would not talk to me and eventually their numbers were different as well.
What I'm going to advise you to do now - is stop for a second.
Please bear with me.
I know I've been harsh. And I'm not impartial, because my family has gone through a virtually identical situation. So it's not as if I don't actually have experience with this. I actually sympathize, to a degree, because a very close family member has been in your situation. But personal anecdotes aside...
..I STRONGLY suggest you step back for at least a day or two. Spend some time reading these forums. There are - literally - HUNDREDS of NCPS (of both genders, before we go down
that route again) who have had to do it all.
Worked 3 - and sometimes 4 - jobs. Gone without TV, phone, and even transportation at times. Learned the local rules of the courts, and spent what little spare time they had left in family court seeing how it all works.
They enlisted search engines. Professional trace tools (these can start as little as $25). Private investigators.
They filed motions with the court.
Even if they couldn't find the CP, they went down to the courthouse and FILED, using the CP's last known address. They paid the filing fees.
Many literally spent years eating ramen and living in one-room apartments.
THAT'S what they did.
Not everyone was successful obviously, but none of these posters have been attorneys and very very few have had money to burn.
Even fewer could afford an attorney to even help with initial filings.
But that's what they did.
I also realize that retrospect is 20/20 vision, and there's nothing you can do to change the past.
However the truth remains - you did, by your inaction (and honestly unless you were hospitalized the entire time it really does come down to inaction), abandon your child.
Maybe this will shed some light onto things.
Yeah - stick around.
Read. Don't post for a day or two (you can always come back to the thread). Learn. Educate yourself.