S
Skorpionn
Guest
I live in California, and was wondering what, if any, route my husband can take to sue his ex-wife for legal costs when an unnecessary custody issue came up during court regarding child support? When they first seperated and filed for divorce, he was willing to pay a small sum of child support since he was under the impression that she was unemplyed, and wanted his children well cared for when they visited her. It came to his attention shortly after the divorce paperwork was complete that in fact she was working, then he decided not to pay her support, but filed for support from her since his children reside with us roughly 80% of the time. At the time he filed the support paperwork they rarely saw their mother, maybe once every 2-3 months, and she never called them, but once a month. It came to his attention during the divorce was occurring that he (his ex and himself) needed to go to PACT, he went and she did not. As a result she hired an attorney stating that he was keeping the children from her by not letting them visit her in Los Angeles. A decision was made to not let his children travel to L.A. after he found out that his ex-wife was stripping, hanging around with "foul people," leaving the children alone for hours at a time (they were 6 and 9 at the time), and finally that she had been mugged at gunpoint shortly before a visit with her was scheduled. He made it clear to her that she could visit the children whenever she came to town. Her mother lives in the same town as us, so it would be easy because she and the children were always welcome to stay there. To sum things up, his ex-wife filed custody paperwork filled with lies that made me and my husband out to be some sort of monsters, which caused my husband to retain an attorney, defend himself unnecessarily, and the judge wouldn't even hear the case regarding custody until she had attended the PACT class and mediation was complete. In addition to that she was asking for custody of the children during ALL their breaks from school, and every weekend, so we would never spend any time with them during the holidays - or any other time for that matter. I know she was asking for this rediculous custody shedule to prevent herself from paying very little if any child support. Before the child support issue came up she was quite pleased to contact or spend any time with her children only AT HER LEISURE!!! When all was said and done, mediation was completed with a visitation schedule where she had them about 91 days of the year, and the judge ruled in his favor, and she had to pay him child support. Still, there was a $5,000 attorney bill for the custody issue that wasn't necessary to begin with. The state of California handles all the legal issues regarding support and the seeking of it on behalf of a resident. Just 4 months after his ex-wife was ordered to pay support, she lost her job due to never showing up, stopped paying child support, ignored all attempts by the child support office to contact her. My husband was forced to file a 270 (criminal action) against her in early August of this year. It was only two weeks ago that he started receiving any support. It had come to his attention via the children that she had a job in early September, but she refused to tell my children claiming that me or my husband would call up her place of employment and get her fired - which, of course, is a total lie. During her intitial employment she did not contact the child support office to inform them of her employment, even though it was court ordered that she do so. Apparently, since my husband has now started receiving support again, that the child support office was able to track her down and take out the support - she has never willingly given any money for the care of her children. What I need to know is if my husband can sue her for slander, perjury, and to recoup the attorney fees? $5,000 is a lot of money to have been wasted - her mother payed for her attorney bills, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to pursue any kind of case. Can this be done? Is it a civil suit, and does an attorney NEED to be involved? My husband and I are STILL paying for the fees because we had to put it on a credit card - we don't have that amount of money easliy at hand. Please...any info would be helpful!!!!