Ohio
I had a temp. custody hearing. I repeatedly called and asked the attny if I needed witnesses he said no each time. We show up to my exes entourage of witnesses me with none. The hearing went for 3+ hours and badly since many lies were told on his side, but my word against 3-4 of his witnesses wasn't enough. On all accounts I had witnesses that could have easily disputed these untruths(they even stated I had been in a car accident which I wasn't). Because of this hearing I lost many future ones because of what was said and the magistrates belief in these untruths, along with my attny pushing me to not do anything to "upset the court". I also requested that at the very least I produce witnesses or statements showing the truth, my attny assured me the courts wouldn't look at what was said and not be judging me on that and my submitting of these things would make me look bad by wasting the Courts time. My concerns are 1) The attny I hired didn't come, passed my case even tho upon hiring I stated I wanted ONLY him 2) After this hearing I met with the attny's and it was stated during this meeting that he should have stopped the hearing. 3) I have paid for this because I couldn't afford to come up with another retainer, but have serious issues with the fact that not once did my attny suppoena ANY witnesses on my side even tho I requested that he did. If nothing else this I think made it appear that I was lying. 4) The Guardian ad litem report stated that she spoke with people she didn't, yet I had to pay and he refused to question her as to why or even what she said to show she hadn't represented a true evaluation. I know the case is over and I simply got screwed, but another bill for over $3,000.00 came and I can't stomach the thought of paying it. My attny btw offered to do all the paperwork for this case to the opposing attny, telling me that it was in my best interest, so that means by looking at the paperwork I paid an even bigger cost. There are many other things that "went wrong" with this case also but these are things that seemed to affect the future of it. Do I have any recourses?
I had a temp. custody hearing. I repeatedly called and asked the attny if I needed witnesses he said no each time. We show up to my exes entourage of witnesses me with none. The hearing went for 3+ hours and badly since many lies were told on his side, but my word against 3-4 of his witnesses wasn't enough. On all accounts I had witnesses that could have easily disputed these untruths(they even stated I had been in a car accident which I wasn't). Because of this hearing I lost many future ones because of what was said and the magistrates belief in these untruths, along with my attny pushing me to not do anything to "upset the court". I also requested that at the very least I produce witnesses or statements showing the truth, my attny assured me the courts wouldn't look at what was said and not be judging me on that and my submitting of these things would make me look bad by wasting the Courts time. My concerns are 1) The attny I hired didn't come, passed my case even tho upon hiring I stated I wanted ONLY him 2) After this hearing I met with the attny's and it was stated during this meeting that he should have stopped the hearing. 3) I have paid for this because I couldn't afford to come up with another retainer, but have serious issues with the fact that not once did my attny suppoena ANY witnesses on my side even tho I requested that he did. If nothing else this I think made it appear that I was lying. 4) The Guardian ad litem report stated that she spoke with people she didn't, yet I had to pay and he refused to question her as to why or even what she said to show she hadn't represented a true evaluation. I know the case is over and I simply got screwed, but another bill for over $3,000.00 came and I can't stomach the thought of paying it. My attny btw offered to do all the paperwork for this case to the opposing attny, telling me that it was in my best interest, so that means by looking at the paperwork I paid an even bigger cost. There are many other things that "went wrong" with this case also but these are things that seemed to affect the future of it. Do I have any recourses?