Court tomorrow - feeling nervous!
So we go to court tomorrow to get the support order lowered. Like I have mentioned before, DH agreed to non-guideline child support of $2000 (for 2 kids) and spousal support of $500 per month before we met. He is a contractor and grosses about $4000 to $4500 a month before taxes. He was in a really bad place emotionally at the time and told BM that he would do his best but didn't know if he could give her that much. She promised that if he gave her what he could she would never go after him for back support (sigh). Of course she is now.
She is claiming because he and I have gone on three week long vacations since Summer 2010 and he had some medical issues, that he isn't making every effort to find work and should pay more than the guideline amount? Not too worried about this - we are just asking to have the support recalculated based upon the guidelines, which our attorney says should be about $1200 a month. We have five years of his past profit and loss tax statements (including three while he was married to her) showing that his income has varied very little so I don't think she has a leg to stand on. The problem is that I make twice what he does and the family court assistant advised us to include my income where the forms asked for it so as not to make the judge angry. Frankly, i could care less if BM knows how much I make - she makes $1600 a month before taxes and is green with envy that I can take care of myself so well. We did get an attorney who pointed us towards the New Spouse Income laws that CA passed January 2011 which states that a new spouses income should not be used to calculate support. We refiled an amended income form and declaration with the New Spouse Income law quoted that our attorney reviewed and approved. BM replied with a declaration of her own thst states she won't be getting a part time job (she currently only works 30 hours a week on the year round school schedule) just to reduce DHs payments. I don't think that statement will go over well with the judge. She is required by CA to work towards supporting herself and should be working 40 hours a week like everyone else.
I think we are good here, but I keep hearing horror stories about new spouses income being figured in anyway - any input?
Good luck tomorrow. And give
Good luck tomorrow. And give us an update on how it turns out.
Count yourself lucky. At
Count yourself lucky. At least she's working. Good luck tomorrow.
Wow, what a roller coaster
Wow, what a roller coaster day!
Our paperwork said to show up to one court, we get there, and 10 minutes before the hearing starts, the family court admits they made a mistake and we are supposed to be in another court an hour away. They promise to call the court and let them know we are on our way, it was the court's fault, etc. They do, but the supervisor at the other court doesn't tell the judge. Luckily our case had not been called yet so we were okay. BM looked pissed off, lol, when we walked in. I guess she thought we weren't going to show up and was thinking it was all going to go her way.
DH did GREAT talking to the judge. He is just a very mellow, friendly guy anyway and looked like a million dollars in his suit. BM looked like she had had WAY too much to drink over Labor Day weekend and was sour faced as usual. Unfortunately, the court is very small and out in the middle of nowhere so they get traveling judges, all with different specialties. This judge knew civil law, but no family law at all. Luckily, the lawyer that DH used in his separation from BM was in the courtroom for something else and stepped in free of charge to represent DH when he saw that the judge was clueless and asking BM and DH to go in the hallway or to mediation to "work out the child support issue". The look on BM's face when the lawyer stepped up for DH was priceless, lol. She had already told us she was going to drag this out as long as possible to keep racking up back child support. The lawyer had the case turned over to a very experienced family law judge in another courthouse instead of dragging it all on for months. We go back Monday to get the final judgement. So, not the best outcome, but it definately could have been worse without that lawyer there.
Another funny thing - there was a case before ours where the judge just hammered some poor girl for not looking for work - even I felt sorry for her. She had had a baby and had to take 6 weeks off before going back to waiting tables and was waiting for winter to start back up at her second job on the ski slopes as a ski patrol. Her SO ended up paying $100 a month in CS. I was hoping BM took note since she states in her declaration to the court that "she WILL NOT find additional work just so DH's cs payments will go down", is only working part time, and is fighting for $2500 in SS and CS for two kids. I guess it didn't sink in though because she asked the judge like 3 times if her response made it in, lol. Geez, what an idiot.