I am posting this on behalf of my friend. He wrote what is below, his wife is the custodial parent to the children.
My wife had this lawyer for her divorce for a few years now, since 2017. He was initially hired to adjust visitation between her and the kids, it was previously 65/35%. In 2018 she received a temporary relief, but the original thing he was hired for still hasn’t been addressed due to delayed court dates. She’s currently still on the same 65/35% visitation schedule. Since hiring the attorney, the non custodial parent has been arrested 6 times since August of 2017. The lawyer was paid forward for all of his work. Custodial parent still hasn’t been given a court date for this and the original reason he was hired is currently still unresolved with no end is sight…
NOW since custodial parent has a new husband, she’s trying to relocate to a different state where her husband moved from. Better jobs, better schools, more cultured city, better economy. This is a good faith move. The children (ages 6 and 9) both want to move. The non-custodial parent has been sentenced to 2 years in prison for a violent crime and also breaking house arrest multiple times while he had the children during his supervised visitation (sentencing happened last week). We filed a petition to relocate and after the 20 days the non-custodial parent denied the move, his main objection that he listed was monetary. In Florida there’s a state statute that the court has to see our case within 30 days after the non-custodial parent denied the move. There was a date available within 15 days and also within 95 days. The noncustodial parents lawyer said he was unable to attend the 15 day court date and our lawyer (for whatever reason) never obtained the 95 day out court date. He told us another date would come up in court and he would notify us when that happens. It’s been 2 months now and we haven’t heard back on a court date. We reach out to the lawyer weekly, often times with no response at all. Due to not having a court date, we’ve decided that it may be better to settle out of court. We visited the lawyer’s office in person and spoke to him about this 3 weeks ago and he still hasn’t written the out of court relocation agreement and sent it to the noncustodial parent’s lawyer. Again, we’ve asked him and his paralegal frequently without a response. We aren’t sure if we should hire a new lawyer at this point or not. He’s already been paid for one job that hasn’t been done and said if we go to court for the relocation hearing he’d charge a “discounted $2000”.
For what it’s worth, the non-custodial parent had a violent history with the custodial parent and also physically and mentally abused the children, this carried through to his most recent visitation in January, during which he was arrested again for breaking house arrest that he was on a violent crime against his most recent ex-wife. He’s been late on child support payments for 5 years and only pays to date the week before a court hearing. At one point he didn’t see his children for a year due being in jail and a restraining order filed against him. Per his current restraining order he’s not allowed to go near their elementary school, this is, again, a non-issue because he’s currently in prison for 2 years. He most recently lived with his mother because he was out of jail and on house arrest and in the past has only attempted to work under the table jobs as a way to avoid child support being increased. For 2 children he owes a total of $180 a month. He’s written in his relocation denial that he would like to reduce the amount of child support he owes. Non-custodial parent is still claiming 1 child on his tax return even though he only saw that child for 2 days in the year of 2018. The children understand that they would be away from their father and his side of the family for the majority of the year. When he calls from jail we give them the phone, but they have no interest in speaking to him. When he was sentenced, they literally said “yay”.
In our relocation/visitation agreement we are offering him $0 a month child support payments in a way for him to be able to pay for the visitation of his children when he gets out of prison. We’re also offering 2-3 holidays a year and the majority of the children’s summer vacation. We feel this is a very fair agreement.
Their questions are:
1 – Is it time for a new lawyer, or does this sound like par for the course when dealing with these family law issues in Florida?
2 – Are there any other steps they should be taking to help move along the process?
Any advice is appreciated. We will be happy to explain anything further in the comments.
Written By: ashella
Source: https://ift.tt/2I5C4cn
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