Our Lawyer sucks....how to learn to represent ourselves....cant afford a new attorney.
So my DH hired his current lawyer a year ago this month. So far she has yet to send us a bill....went awal for 4 months over the summer on maternity leave without notifing us, and all she has accomplished are sending BM's lawyer the answers to the financial interogatorries (of course when he filed for a modification she filed for increase in CS) and getting a GAL appointed. She has once again gone awal not returning phone calls or emails or texts. Have gone by her office she has been in court, not return response.....it is so frustrating, and we do not have the money for another attorney. Has anyone represented themselves in a modification case when BM had a lawyer? Any resources you know of to help with forms, motions, rules of evidence?? Please all the advice we could get would be great!
Another idea? Do some
Another idea?
Do some checking and see if there is a law school near you. If so see if they have a law clinic... where about to graduate students help laymen (normal peeps) for pennies on the dollar IF they charge at all.
(PS: Dental colleges also sometimes run student dental clinics cheap too!)
Fire her and do a search for
Fire her and do a search for father's rights attorney in your area. Don't pay the bill when she sends it to you. It's important as a biodad NOT to go pro se in any circumstance as 99% of family court is biased against biodad. You can dispute the bill when it comes in; there are legal regulatory agencies that you can talk to as well
We gave her a 1000 dollar
We gave her a 1000 dollar retainer and she is supposed to send us a bill before she withdrawls money from this trust. We have never seen one bill.
You won't get a dime of that
You won't get a dime of that back, sorry to say. Lawyers like that will charge you $75 just to listen to your voicemail. I don't know about representing yourself if BM has a lawyer, the law school idea is a good one.
Fire her and do a search for
Fire her and do a search for father's rights attorney in your area. Don't pay the bill when she sends it to you. It's important as a biodad NOT to go pro se in any circumstance as 99% of family court is biased against biodad. You can dispute the bill when it comes in; there are legal regulatory agencies that you can talk to as well
Fire her and do a search for
Fire her and do a search for father's rights attorney in your area. Don't pay the bill when she sends it to you. It's important as a biodad NOT to go pro se in any circumstance as 99% of family court is biased against biodad. You can dispute the bill when it comes in; there are legal regulatory agencies that you can talk to as well
What makes it really scary is
What makes it really scary is he was diagnosed with Asthma when he was with us over labor day last year. She told us the doctor we took him to was a quak and he didnt have asthma. She lied to my DH about when the follow up was with her doctor so he wasnt able to go, and then later refused to send an inhaler with him. She keeps telling us it is our fault something at our house is makeing him sick
That is ultmatley why we got a GAL involved because she refuses to believe and properly seek medical attention regarding Asthma. We have been requesting several times for her to take him to a specialist so we can become better educated and when to seek treatment etc....BM just refuses. Then in Nov he was with us and had took his inhaler in the morning when he woke up because he sounded like he was haveing trouble. Then 4 hours later had to take it again, 2 hours after that he was still wheezing, we then took him to the ER and he ended up in the hospital for 2 days. Come to find out if they have to take thier rescue inhaler more than once a day you should immediatley seek treatment was what the doctor in the hospital told us. When he was discharged they set him up with a pediatrician (BM doctor small town family doc). She told my DH she was not going to take him to that doctor she didnt care what the hospital said or what appointment they made. At this point when we could not get ahold of our Lawyer we called the GAL asking for help to make her keep the appointment. So she did she sent a letter to Both attorney and the appointment was kept. He had a maintence inhaler that was prescribed and filled. It has a dose counter on that and we take pictures everytime we pick him up and drop him off and while he has been in his moms care he missed 25 doses in a 35 day period, so he has basically been taking it only about 1 time a day when he should take it 2 times a day. He has an appointment on the 29th with a pediatric pulmonologist (BM still doesnt think he has asthma, she thinks its bronchitis), so my husband is going to ask the specialist in front of the BM what the consequences are for not taking that medication as ordered. And our lawyer we have not heard from sinc the hospitilization almost 2 months ago and not because of our lack of trying.
spittenfire, hope this helps.
spittenfire, hope this helps. Your BM is Medically Neglecting her child. Below is the MO state law regarding medical neglect. I recommend you and your DH do more research into this.
31: Medical Neglect
Definition of:
Medical Neglect: The denial or deprivation, by those responsible for the care, custody, and control of the child, of medical or surgical treatment or intervention which is necessary to remedy or ameliorate a medical condition which is life threatening or causes injury. Medical Neglect includes not only serious, but mild and moderate medical neglect as well.
http://www.dss.mo.gov/cd/info/cwmanual/section7/ch1_33/sec7ch31.htm
Roger that Ladyface I read
Roger that Ladyface
I read under the OP's bio that she's in MO. That's why I looked up that state's law regarding the matter.
Thank you
Thank you
We gave her a 1000 dollar
We gave her a 1000 dollar retainer
My sister ended up with a crappy divorce lawyer, who did nothing after receiving 900.00.
She wrote a letter the state bar and got every penny back.
Thank You we were wondering
Thank You we were wondering if we should do that.
This was in MO, by the way.
This was in MO, by the way.
Yep, I believe that family
Yep, I believe that family law tends to be the repository for the bottom 10%ers of the legal profession. Including family law judges. Idiots, almost every one of them in my experience.
However, there is the occassional very good one. They are the most expensive from an hourly rate perspective but considering total cost they are the least costly. These are the ones that get things done.
We had our version of your attorney for our first round of festivities with the Sperm Clan when they attempted to go for custody of my SS. This was while my DW and I were dating and first married. Rare responses from our attorney, repeated advice to negotiate and compromise with the Sperm Clan, accepting calls from my DW to hear her vent frustration and tears then billing us for the calls that had absolutely no action taken by the attorney, etc... We dumped $7K in to that useless attorney's pockets.
Then we found our shark attorney. This guy was and is amazing. He has been our attorney for 16+ years now. When I got tired of our worthless POS attorney I dragged my bride out to find a new one. We met with nearly a dozen. All were run of the mill same shit different day lawyers except for the last one. When we sat down with him he listened to our sitaution then asked us several key questions.
1. Are we doing this in the best interest of the kid or to punish Bio Dad?
2. Are we ready for a long and expensive effort? It could take a very long time with a high financial cost.
3. If he does not believe what we are trying to accomplish is right or likely will we listen to alternative suggestions?
There may have been another question he asked during our consultation but these were the major ones. I gave him a retainer on the spot. We have used him ever since. He has done our Will, represented us in a few battles with our HOA, written several very effective ass baring letters to the Sperm Clan and counseled us in preparation for a couple of CS modification hearings that we kicked ass in. He is more than twice the hourly billing rate of our previose attorney but costs us next to nothing because we have yet to need him in court. He is that good. He sends a letter and the opposition and their counsel cave in immediately.
Over the rest of our Custody/Visitation/Support case we spent no more than $3K and we always got exactly what we wanted out of the action. Increased CS, more structured and controlled visitation schedule, trembling and quaking and gnashing of teeth by the Sperm Clan.... it was beautiful.
Gotta love it when an attorney understands who they works for and that their job is to get the results their cliets are paying them to deliver. It amazes me how many of these supposedly learned and professional people are clueless and can deliver nothing of value to their clients.
Even if it costs you a bit to find one, keep looking until you find an effective attorney. You will get results for relatively low cost.
Though we have not paid him all that much over the years our attorney has made good money from our relationship through the many referrals we have made to him. We have referred several friends on HOA battles, an adoption, several Custody/Visitation/Support situations, Wills, etc... Everyone we have sent to him has been very complimentary of how good he is and how effectively he managed and delivered on their needs.