How to Handle Mediation AND the Court Hearing

[truebluemd]

Also, be prpared to disprove or affirm any of his allegations that he may have against you.

 

[my bear]

His declaration contains one sentence - "I think it would be in the best interest mentally and physically for Jordan to spend one week at her moms house and one week at my house."

I submitted the calendar to the court as part of an exhibit to my "Declaration in Support of Child Custody, Support and Visitation." So, I will definately reference it in my mediation and my court hearing.

 

[truebluemd]

His declaration contains one sentence - "I think it would be in the best interest mentally and physically for Jordan to spend one week at her moms house and one week at my house."

I submitted the calendar to the court as part of an exhibit to my "Declaration in Support of Child Custody, Support and Visitation." So, I will definately reference it in my mediation and my court hearing.

When you give testimony, submit that as evidence and mention his inconsistency in his parenting time. You will need good reason as to why 50/50 wont work. If your courts are like my county, they dont like 50/50 unless its been status quo or the parents are freely agree on it in mediation. I have a recent post of what happened in my court case last friday. Take a look. But remember, all cases are uniquely different, and all courts and judges are different. You should try sitting in on a few cases at the courthouse just to get a feel

 

[TinkerBelleLuvr]

Has your X given you any reasons WHY it would be in your child's best interests?

Any child support cases looming?

 

[my bear]

He did not give a reason why he felt it would be in her best interest in the court papers. I am filing for Child Custody, Child Support and Visitation. We had an independent agreement that we worked out in July, 2007 which was signed and notarized, but it was never filed with the court. Once I discovered that the agreement we had in place was not legally binding I attempted to get him to stipulate to our current agreement and file it with the court so that there would be an order. He did not want to becuase he is paying well below state guideline support. So, here we are. I am not asking the court for anything that is not in our current agreement. Our current agreement has been status quo for the last thirteen months and I was the only parent recognized by the law prior to that because we never established paternity.

 

[my bear]

There is one more issue before the court. My ex failed to file his response on time with the court. He only responded to the OSC and not the Petition. The petition was the only document he was required to respond to in thirty days according to the Summons. He actually had thirty-two days to file a response to the Petition because the 30 day fell on the weekend. I notified him on Friday (the 29th day) that he had filed the wrong forms with the court and that which form he needed to file to avoid the default. He did not do it, so I filed for entry of default judgment. He then filed to vacate the default. I have responded to his request, but I am sure the court will grant him his motion to set aside the default.

 

[TinkerBelleLuvr]

So my hunch was right - it is about child support. He doesn't want to pay the guidelines.

Okay, you need to bring in your stipulated notarized agreement with you to court. That will show that he is in agreement with your current plan, unless he'll try to say that you forged his signature on a notarized statemetnt. Where did you have your paperwork notarized? Would they attest to it being their seal? Their process in verifying signatures?

 

[my bear]

I included a copy of our original agreements - One for custody and one for child support - along with my Petition for Custody. I also plan on bring the original to the court. We had them notarized at the local UPS Store by an independent notary who works there. We have also had travel affidivits notarized there. They check your license and watched us sign the documents. I believe that in California if the court requests a copy of the book they are required to produce it. Also the I would think the Court would be able to recognize it is his signature against his signature on the Court filings. He has a very distinctive signature.

 

[TinkerBelleLuvr]

You might want to talk with the folks that notarized your signature and see if they'll testify in court that those are your signatures. It's just a feeling, okay. If you see if you can pay the person who will be losing time from work their hourly rate, that might make showing up in court more enticing. Otherwise, they could be subpeoned (or however that is spelt).

 

[my bear]

Good idea, I will go an talk to them tomorrow. I definately want to have all of my ducks in a row. I would love to get the default and not have to deal with any of this since I am not asking for anything more than I currently have, but I know that is a pipe dream.

 

[LdiJ]

I filed a 13 page declaration with the Court and provided exhibits to back up my declaration. In anyone's experience does the Judge read this information? I am not worried about them reading all or even the majority of the exhibits, but I am worried that they will ntot read my Declaration statement. Also, in mediation is it appropriate to discuss your exes lying and irresponsible behavior if it relates to our daughter? It is not a critism of him, but rather those actions affects our ability to communicate with regards to our child.

If you present it that way, as an explanation of your difficulty in communicating regarding your child, rather than a criticism of dad, then yes, its very appropriate to discuss in front of a mediator.

 

[LdiJ]

You might want to talk with the folks that notarized your signature and see if they'll testify in court that those are your signatures. It's just a feeling, okay. If you see if you can pay the person who will be losing time from work their hourly rate, that might make showing up in court more enticing. Otherwise, they could be subpeoned (or however that is spelt).

I am a notary, and in my opinion, that isn't necessary. A notary is required to check ID and be certain that the person is who they say they are, when they sign a document in front of a notary. That is the whole point of notarization.

Major, corporate contracts and other issues hinge on notarization of signatures. A notary has huge liabilty if they notarize something without checking ID and being certain that they are properly notarizing a signature. Seriously huge.

Its highly unlikely that a judge would consider a challenge to a notarization without giving the other party the opportunity for a continuance, to subpeona the notary, and even then, if that actually came into play the judge would want to see handwriting experts involved as well. I, as a notary, also wouldn't agree to do that without getting counsel of my own involved, again, due to the liability.

Therefore, I honestly don't think that its necessary to "line a notary up" unless a challenge has been issued.

 

[my bear]

I doubt he would contest the notarization or that it is his signature on document especially since he has referred to it in e-mails on occasion, as have I. The only major sticking point we have, is that I want the Court to put our current agreement into an order and he wants them to give him an order that states that our daughter spend on week at this house and then the next at my house and so, on so forth. Status Quo is currently every Wednesday night at his house (overnight visit) and every other weekend at his house.

 

[my bear]

I do have one more issue. I have requested that the Court order that my exes g/f is not allowed to be left alone with our daughter. I am not asking that she be prevented from being around her - just not alone with her. This woman threw a computer desk chair at my exes car in the middle of a heated argument which hit one inch below the passenger seat window which is where my daughter was strapped into her car seat at the time. I know nothing happened to my child, but had it hit one inch higher than it did, it could have shattered the window and hurt our daughter. She has also called my home repeatedly (all incidence are documented), called my work and threatened to do me physical harm (I filed a police report of which I have given the court a copy) and had her friends threaten me and our daughter harm on social networking sites (again I have included them with my original filing). Is this something I bring up in mediation, the court or both. I am fearful that based on this woman's past irrational actions, she may cause our daughter harm. They have an extremely contentious relationship and argue in front of the children and I am fearful that she may cause our daughter harm. And I have e-mails where my ex expresses concern that she is trying to destroy him mentally, socially and possibly even physically.

 

[LdiJ]

I do have one more issue. I have requested that the Court order that my exes g/f is not allowed to be left alone with our daughter. I am not asking that she be prevented from being around her - just not alone with her. This woman threw a computer desk chair at my exes car in the middle of a heated argument which hit one inch below the passenger seat window which is where my daughter was strapped into her car seat at the time. I know nothing happened to my child, but had it hit one inch higher than it did, it could have shattered the window and hurt our daughter. She has also called my home repeatedly (all incidence are documented), called my work and threatened to do me physical harm (I filed a police report of which I have given the court a copy) and had her friends threaten me and our daughter harm on social networking sites (again I have included them with my original filing). Is this something I bring up in mediation, the court or both. I am fearful that based on this woman's past irrational actions, she may cause our daughter harm. They have an extremely contentious relationship and argue in front of the children and I am fearful that she may cause our daughter harm. And I have e-mails where my ex expresses concern that she is trying to destroy him mentally, socially and possibly even physically.

You really should be asking for her not to be present at all during visitation, if she and he fight like that when the child is present.