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Civil Pre-Hearing question(s)

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NancyLou9

Guest
What is the name of your state? Ohio

I say question(s) since I don't know if this will lead to more than one question...

Background:

Filed Civil Suit against hubby's ex for all kinds of terrible things that lead to my husband retiring early from the Air Force. Some of the abuse is still ongoing.

Present:

Finally have good service to the woman, personally handed to her by a process server. We have a pre-hearing date for 23 January in order to outline for the judge what it is we're asking. We gave a dollar figure and I'm guessing he wants to know what the breakdown is.

Question(s):

1. If we are there and she isn't, what can we expect?
2. It would appear she, again, has no intention of responding. Can we make an oral motion for default judgment at the hearing on the 23rd?
3. If we appear and she doesn't, how does this affect the other issues, the ones regarding the financial side of things?
4. Numerous phone calls made to her employer, who is a major corporation with offices all over the country and no one seems able/willing to let me know who processes her payroll. What to do in this situation when we want to begin garnishment as soon as we are able?
5. And this one is for HomeGuru... What color panties are you wearing?
 


cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
The only one of your questions I can address is #4.

You do not need to know who processes her payroll and they have no obligation to tell you. When and only when you have a court-ordered garnishment of her wages (the employer has no obligation to pay any attention to any requests for garnishment without a court order) you send all the relevant paperwork, by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the corporate headquarters addressed to the payroll manager if you know the person's name and to Payroll Manager if you do not know the name. Who does the actual processing is irrelevant. Keep copies of everything and document to whom it was sent and when. Take note of who actually signed for the package.
 
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NancyLou9

Guest
Just so I'm clear on this...

Sending the information to her corporate office is sufficient?

We wanted to know who actually processed her payroll so the judgment would be sent to the appropriate office. And when I was making the phone calls, it was when we were told, at one time, we HAD a judgement and I was leaving messages that stated we had a judgement, could the person please call us back to let us know to whom the judgement must be sent?

And I believe they have two corporate office locations... One seems to be in Atlanta, the other in New Jersey. Do I send one to both?

Thanks in advance for you kind help.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
I doubt that they run payroll out of both locations. You send it to whichever office runs the payroll. That is the only "who processes it" information you need. I thought you meant "which payroll company (ADP, Paychex) runs the checks" or on an internal basis, "Joanne Smith, the second payroll clerk from the right". All you need to know is which office handles payroll. You may even be able to get that information off the net. You only need to get the paperwork into the hands of the appropriate payroll office. If you are able to get the name of the specific person, fine, but it's not necessary.

P.S. I have never heard of a company that has two equal and equivalent corporate headquarters. I'll bet you money that one is the corporate headquarters and the other is a regional or divisional headquarters. Not the same thing.

BTW, while I am now a self-employed HR consultant, I have spent my share of time processing payroll. So I am not unfamiliar with the topic.
 

JETX

Senior Member
Before anyone can answer your questions, we really need to know the FACTS of the case. What is the 'cause of action' for your claim, what is the amount and how did you determine the amount??
And in what court??
 
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NancyLou9

Guest
Thanks again...

I believe every word you're saying, so please don't think for a minute that I'm doubting you...

Am I able to say here what company the ex works for? It might help clear the waters a bit. See, I think that New Jersey is the main office, but I think I was routed to a person in Atlanta for payroll. Like I said, I can't get a straight answer OR a return phone call to the numerous messages I've sent.

Also, to help stir the pot a bit more, the company she now works for is the same one she worked for, under a different name, but last year, it was bought by her current employer. She didn't change jobs, just the name on her paycheck. Her location is still the same.

Is that clear as mud now?
 
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NancyLou9

Guest
Um, let's see if I can give you the Reader's Digest version...

"Before anyone can answer your questions, we really need to know the FACTS of the case. What is the 'cause of action' for your claim, what is the amount and how did you determine the amount??
And in what court??"

Okay, we sued for Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress, Fraud, Lost Wages and Retirement, um... Loss of Consortium (marital for me, parental for my son. Long story that involves documented ultimatums that he would never see his kids again unless he divorced me. He tried several times and kept coming back. We are now happily married.), Slander Per Se... um... I can't think of anything else, but I'm pretty sure there's more...

The Punitive amount is over $500,000 and the actual is around $350,000.

I have around 9 spreadsheets filled with calcuations and documentation from the Air Force and other official offices, including a report from his Psychiatrist at his last base, where he retired from, that was presented to the miltary board to support a finding for an early retirement (to which he has actually already lost a good deal of money retiring three years early) that made the actual statement that his emotional and health problems were a direct result of the stress his ex put him under.

This was all filed in the Common Pleas court here in our county in Ohio.
 

JETX

Senior Member
And of course you are bringing this action Pro Se, aren't you???
The reason I ask is that I doubt any attorney would TOUCH this case...... at least without a very healthy retainer.

And lets go to the extremely unlikely situation that you were to win in court. Do you really think that this person has $850,000 to pay you.... or even enought to cover your legal fees???
 
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NancyLou9

Guest
Jet, yes, we were told by three different attorneys that we have a strong case. We were also told we would need a hefty retainer. That's why we are going pro se and have an attorney in the wings we pay an hourly rate to for advice.

And it's not about getting all the money. It's about getting back some dignity.

You don't know the entire story and our 10 years with this woman twisting us any way she could. It's about the principle of the thing.

I don't want her money. I want her to know I'm better than she is and that she can't do the things she has done to us without repercussion.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Believe me, I understand. Over a five year period I sat at the same desk doing the same job for the same people and the name at the top of my paycheck changed three times.

I accept that you believe me. I was just giving you some bona fides since this is a public board.

Since it appears that an attorney is working with you why don't you ask HIM to determine where the garnishment (when and if you get one - even if you win that doesn't necessarily mean you get to garnish her wages from day one) is supposed to go? But I still say that you only need to get it into the hands of corporate. Believe me, two years ago my company received a garnishment on one of our VP's and it was delivered to our CEO. You would not BELIEVE how fast they got it to me (I didn't process payroll at that time, but I was director of HR and they sent anything that affected employees to me) - I spent about a day and a half confirming that it was valid (there was a legitimate reason to doubt the validity in this case) and personally walked it down the hall to Payroll. Granted, that was a much smaller company with only two locations, but senior officers don't mess around with garnishments on their employees.
 
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NancyLou9

Guest
You know, perhaps seeing to it that the persident gets it first might be a good way to see it taken care of. I could also put a note in there that the person(s) responsible for this refused to help me out. I'm sure someone will be told just WHAT their responsibilities are as payroll processor.
 

JETX

Senior Member
Since you seem set to go forward with this probable exercise in futility, it is important that you know some states dictate the process of wage garnishment.

In fact, if the employer is a corporation (as you state), you would serve the wage garnishment on the corporations 'registered agent for service' for your state. That is the person or organization that the corporation has designated as their agent for any LEGAL process in your state.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
No one in Payroll or any other department has any legal or moral obligation to help you in the way you describe. Feel free to send it to the president, (assuming you get the court ordered garnishment in the first place) but he will likely disregard any notes to how unhelpful they were to you because that's not what they get paid to do.
 
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NancyLou9

Guest
Okay, you know what? I think some people here specialize in misunderstanding the whole issue.

I already know that I will get the garnishment since we will be getting a default judgement against the witch.

I already know I need to get the damn thing to the payroll department and I don't care how I get it there at all.

And had the witch even acknowledged the thing, it probably would have been thrown out of court, but she is choosing to pretend it doesn't exist since that's what the family court system has taught her to do. She has learned that she can do something or she can do nothing and she still gets what she wants. However, this is not family court and if she doesn't respond then we get a default.

I won't go in to the hows, whys or what fors regarding this whole thing as there is too much that went on with the bottom line being my husband hasn't seen his daughter since she was 13 and she is now 19 and she has been filled with so much garbage from her mom (read: Dad doesn't want you. Dad has never wanted you. Dad hasn't called on your birthday. I sent Dad your Graduation announcement and he didn't respond to it so I guess you don't matter enough to him to come.)

I just wanted to know what to expect at this hearing that the witch won't attend.

cbg, you started out helpful and went weird on me for no other reason than you like it. I feel so sorry for your employees that you have the propensity to do this.

The garnishment doesn't have to be served on any particular agent in the company. It's not a damn subpoena for goodness sake. It's a damn garnishment order that must be followed or the company suffers the penalty for not obeying a court order.

I'm guess I'm done with this thread since it has turned into an exercise in "Nancy's so stupid, I (jet/cbg) am the far superior person in the world and I can denigrate people at my whim."

Have fun you guys, it must be very lonely where you're at.
 
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pls_help_my_dad

Guest
You are right about these people on here. They don't know how to answer your question, so they try to be cutsie and smart-alecks instead of having anything constructive to say. I believe they are all a bunch of clown school rejects. Maybe each have had long days and are using us for their verbal punching bags. You know, we could be dealing with juveniles here as well. I thought this was a legitimate site for help, but I was mistaken.

It needs to be known to others out there with problems that this is not a legitimate site for help.


Nancy, good luck to you. I feel for you and know people like you are describing. It takes all kinds of people to make this old world go around.

:rolleyes:
 

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