Surprise

Well it wasn't quite a victory, but it turned out much better than my expectations based on my experiences.

First I arrived on time, despite my car not being available and spending over 2 hours to get to the court building before it even opened. My ex and her lawyer arrived late.

I mentioned to the Central Motions Scheduler and to the Magistrate that I had never been properly served with the motions and that my calls for copies of them went unanswered. The magistrate gave me his copy while we waited for the tardy Plaintiff.

He chastised Plaintiff counsel for improper service and said that it was not fair to continue without it. I told him that even though I had little time to review it, I was prepared to move forward to resolve the issue. He handed me a waiver of service and thanked me for my cooperation.

He discussed my visitation and expressed surprise at its restrictiveness. When my ex tried to brag that she allowed some visitation in the last two months, he pointed out that she was in violation of an existing court order for visitation and while he understood her complaints they didn't "rise to the level of preventing visitation" and that "you need to make arrangements for the holidays". Sensing that the magistrate was serious her lawyer pushed her to make specific commitments.

Knowing my ex, I anticipated her complaints, sight unseen, and had prepared a response. The magistrate was impressed with the actions I took and my response. When he asked questions regarding the parenting plan, I had quick answers referencing a special annotated and cross indexed version, while my ex and her lawyer looked unprepared.

He strongly implied that one motion would be denied and the other two should be negotiated. This magistrate was more Father Friendly than anyone I have seen in the court system. I have to go back next month and I will be very prepared again. Hopefully we will resolve her complaint then.

I wondered why this magistrate hadn't handled the parenting plan the first time around, but the answer to that is easy, he makes the lawyers work, he pushes them to respond. The lawyers much preferred my absentee judge who wasn't even their 60% of the time, much less push them to do anything.

After four years in court I'm still observing and learning new things about how this "system" "works". And this time I wasn't intimidated to use my digital recorder either.