Another Costs questin....

[court]

My court date is in 8 days and I"m busily preparing. Just a quick recap: I am trying to get support ordered but he won't disclose his income so this court date is to get him to disclose his income so support can be ordered.

Now, when I filed my motion and affidavit etc...I did not request costs in it. I don't know if that is something I should have done. He has not responded at all, not filed any financial statements etc.....so I assume he will either show or not show to court and if he does will likely not have the required financial documentation.
From what I understand from reading old cases is that judges like to make examples of people (my ex in this case) for forcing others (me) to take them to court for BS like this since he should be doing it anyway.

My question: How do I ask for costs now? Do I bring it up when I am in front of the judge? Do I have a list of expenses prepared? I hadn't planned on asking for much. It has taken me a total of 7 hours to research FLR and properly write up my affidavits etc..... What hourly rate would I ask for? I have no idea what I'm doing in this regard and am about to just drop the whole costs thing unless someone can shed some light.

Please and thank you!

[firhill]

What costs? If u pay a lawyer u ask for costs otherwise for 7 hours of research, lol, u get none. I've been researching for 2 years and no one cares

I don't pay a lawyer but I request costs on pretty much every document I file and/or serve.

[murphyslaw]

I believe WorkingDad may have been awarded costs....dont quote me, but Im pretty sure he asked for, and received them.

[HammerDad]

I doubt a judge would award costs for 7 hours. WorkingDad, who self represented, had about 200 hours+ for his case, which is substantially greater amount of time, which would in turn cause a substantially larger amount of hardship on the individual, thus why costs would be awarded.

He also was extremely well prepared and destroyed his ex in court.

Costs are awarded to the party that was substantially successful in their case and/or against the party that was unreasonable in causing unnecessary litigation and/or delays.

[court]

Costs are awarded to the party that was substantially successful in their case and/or against the party that was unreasonable in causing unnecessary litigation and/or delays.

So this has lasted almost two years now. I was only asking for 7 hours because I didn't want to seem unreasonable and figured asking for the amount of time it took me to write affidavits was reasonable. However I have spent much more time: driving the hour to court and then home again many many times, waiting in lineups, speaking with duty council etc....I guess I"m looking at close to 70 hours in total I have spend back and forth, researching, writing, money I have spent serving him etc...
He has dragged this out. His response to everything is "take me to court" and it is all over stuff he should be doing anyway, like paying child support. So this, hopefully final, court date is causing unnecessary litigation and/or delays.
It's not even the money I want, I just want him to realize that making me drag him through court is going to cost him. Maybe being ordered to pay costs will teach him to be more agreeable in the future.

Should I just forget the costs then?

[arabian]

I would definitely go for costs. If you are unable to settle out of court on everything and he insists on going to court you should request costs each and every time you have to go to court.

[court]

But how does it work? Will a judge ask to see a list of my costs? How do I organize that? How do I determine what my time is worth?

[FightingForFamily]

Yes you need to provide case law to show that you are seeking an hourly rate for the work you did. Workingdad's costs were awarded at $100 per hour essentially half the rate of a lawyer.

Then you provide an itemized detailed list of all the time and costs you incurred including disbursements for couriers, filing costs, photocopies, etc.

If you didn't ask for costs in your pleading though, you will most likely not receive them now.

[court]

FightingForFamily:
If you didn't ask for costs in your pleading though, you will most likely not receive them now.

Darn, I had a feeling about that. Well, thank you for your advice everyone. I may just drop the costs portion then.