Monday, March 05, 2007

A $9K email

Some people wonder why I take a very active role in my case. I have been mistaken for a lawyer several times at the court house as I'm waiting in the hall and actively reviewing various aspects of the case with briefcase, laptop, pleadings, etc. In sharp contrast my wife sits like a statue staring at the wall doing absolutely nothing.

So my lawyer has been ignoring some things I've said about property settlement. And we're not talking nickels & dimes, $9K is a big deal to me, especially now with all these damn legal bills. I think it's worth an hour or two of legal time, much more than that has been spent on fruitless dancing with the opposition. So here's the email, with some redaction in brackets.

Here are some various evidence documents, scanned in PDF format.

The [first doc] shows the current balance on the [credit2] card, while the [enforcement statement] is the current statement showing a $45 arrearage. At least a portion of this is because of improper crediting of the amount that [Guardian] sent directly to [wife] rather than through [enforcement agency].

It is important for Judge [xxx] to understand that the motion to show cause for a $30 arrearage is an example of opposition counsel's cooperation for next week's Trial Date and that she has yet to fulfill her obligation to make her fees known.

It is important to note that you are willing to have me forego thousands in the effort to save fees while opposition is incurring fees to obtain a $30 arreage before I was even informed of it. This is an important defense in the need for me to pay no fees.

The UPS Package Tracking form shows [wife]'s effort to deliberately incur debt in my name by reissuing a credit card after separation that is charged to my obligation. [credit1] shipped this card to her without my permission or notification.

The [credit1] shows the $5500 retainer paid to [wife's lawyer]. [wife's lawyer] has discovery material that shows a $1000 cash advance against the [credit1] credit card at [xxx2] Bank which I did not make.

The [credit2] card shows another $500 cash advance taken at [xxx1] Bank that I did not make.

This $1500 should appear with the $2000 HELOC cash advance on the spreadsheet to reduce the $6000 proposed settlement.

This update should be made BEFORE you fax the proposal to the opposition.
So he puts together a proposal and leaves out $9000, why? I'm not rich. I worked my ass off prior to marriage for the separate assets I built. My wife has done terrible damage to our child in an attempt to hurt me (not to get money from me, she's never proposed a settlement), and her lawyer has screwed me every which way under the sun. My lawyer says he needs to prove my allegations, but her lawyer never worries about proving the bullshit she (or my wife) make up. And she actually gets the judge to decide things based on lies.

So we'll see, I called his office, he's already gone to court and presumably faxed the settlement proposal.



Surprise, he did contact me and review these items. There are some reasons to leave off some of them. Not necessarily good reasons, but being a man of reason, I need to know the reasons. Call it a character flaw. I won't just "trust" a stranger. Especially not in such a deceitful industry. This isn't my "trusting" time of life. Maybe later. One reason is that even though it is right, it will be misused as a reason for delay by the opposition. I should have seen that one. Hell there isn't anything that the opposition can't find as a good reason for delay.

The $2K home equity loan raid will stay in the settlement, but she'll get away with reissuing the credit card. I'm too nice a guy, the credit card company gave me the option to swear out a criminal complaint.

The email also raised issues in my defense that I should not have to pay my wife's lawyer's fees in addition to mine. So that will be worth a whole lot more than $9K.

Previously the language in the settlement implied I would have to pay something, but now it reads, each party covers their own.

We talked about this plenty of times, but my persistence, and my letters and emails, drove it home.

Status: Second Draft, Updated after response from lawyer
Last Update: 03/07/07 5:05 am

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