Notice of Approaching Dismissal ? Need help

[logicalvelocity]

independentgal,

as you mentioned,

The courthouse that sent me a notice of approaching dismissal refused to take my material on Friday.

Very strange considering that they sent you the notice of case dismissal. Speak to the head Registrar of this court and get reasons for such in writing.

The original courthouse says that they cannot take my material either as they cannot go in contrary to the court order they have on file which notes the transfer. The new courthouse will not either as they say that the order should be interpreted as it was temporarily moved. They sent the file back to the original courthouse after our motion date this past summer.

Get the reasons also from the head Registar at the original court house in writing for refusal to accept the documents.

It appears to be a procedural issue, therefore if the case does get dismissed, you could always bring forth a motion to have it reinstated - you would have your proof that both Registrars from each court declined to accept your documents to carry on the case. Another alternative is if the case gets dismissed is; You could bring forth another application. However, this would be more work. Best to bring forth a motion to have the current case reinstated if it gets dismissed.

I just want to stop the dismissal. The current courthouse is telling me this is just a few strokes on the keyboard for their clerk to allow the extension of the timelines. But she says she cannot take my material as we don't live there. She told me to call back at lunch on Monday.

Speak to both supervising Registrars of each court and get their position in writing. It wouldn't be the first time that Registrars made a mistake.

I tried 3 times to get a response from my ex's lawyer if they would agree on consent to extend the motion. They won't return my messages. Therefore I must assume that my ex has a problem with it and proceed to serve them with the material, right?

Send the communication letter by fax to this lawyer. It is quit possible that they may be out of town. However, most lawyers have secretaries, assistants, and or clerks still on call to manage the office. They may be avoiding your calls. Best to send a formal letter by fax or registered mail as both methods give a confirmation that same received such.

The current courthouse clerk tells me that it is in bad form to force a lawyer to argue a motion when it is not necessary for them to attend and not to do this. I personally do not care as it is not costing me a cent. But I do not want the judge to think I am disrespectful to his time or my ex's lawyers time.

I didn't think court house clerks were allowed to give out legal advise. I agree with your position by filing the motion. It appears the individuals lawyer is avoiding your communication. I don't think the Judge would consider it a waste of time considering you have somewhat of a procedural nightmare on your hands and the case is facing dismissal.


lv

[independentgal]

OK, LV, I am really confused after my dealings with the courthouse. The courthouse that sent me a notice of approaching dismissal refused to take my material on Friday.

In May of last year, apparently my ex and I agreed on consent to "transfer the file to this new courthouse." I don't recall this but I am sure my lawyer felt the need to do this due to scheduling. It happens to be in the area that my ex's lawyer lives in. More travel costs for me for my lawyer and less for my ex. I have to point out that neither of us actually LIVE or have ever lived in this municipality or county. That is the problem with the file.

Our original Courthouse has a "live" file so to speak. So does the other court house that sent the notice. The original courthouse says that they cannot take my material either as they cannot go in contrary to the court order they have on file which notes the transfer. The new courthouse will not either as they say that the order should be interpreted as it was temporarily moved. They sent the file back to the original courthouse after our motion date this past summer.

I just want to stop the dismissal. The current courthouse is telling me this is just a few strokes on the keyboard for their clerk to allow the extension of the timelines. But she says she cannot take my material as we don't live there. She told me to call back at lunch on Monday. This would not give me enough time to serve and file everything if I wait. The original courthouse disagrees with the new courtclerk ans she tells me it is much more than that and that I must serve my ex's lawyer personally no later than MONDAY, tomorrow with my material or we will not get a motion date before the dismissal.

I tried 3 times to get a response from my ex's lawyer if they would agree on consent to extend the motion. They won't return my messages. Therefore I must assume that my ex has a problem with it and proceed to serve them with the material, right?

The current courthouse clerk tells me that it is in bad form to force a lawyer to argue a motion when it is not necessary for them to attend and not to do this. I personally do not care as it is not costing me a cent. But I do not want the judge to think I am disrespectful to his time or my ex's lawyers time.

What do I do?

[logicalvelocity]

independentgal,

I echo what workingthruit has mentioned. Use your current legal name for the documents and you can also address the issue of the name change back yo your maiden name in an affidavit.

lv

[workingthruit]

name quandry

I understand where you are coming from with the name issue -

I changed my name back to my maiden name after the seperation agreement was signed (in my married name), but before we filed for divorce ...

I asked at the Family Law Clinic, and they advised me to sign whatever name I am legally using now - so I did -

I just checked my divorce judgement, and it is in my maiden name.

I would say that you should file in your maiden name, it's your name now, and it was when you got married as well.

[independentgal]

Actually I just called the lawyer and he is on holiday until after the last possible motion day. The assistant is asking another lawyer what to do and I will hear by lunch I hope.

LV- I have one other question, I assumed my ex's last name when we married-i.e.- changed my driver licence, bank account names, with Revenue canada etc.

I was told by the clerks at the courthouse that my clearance certificate has come back from Ottawa(whatever this means).

I recently changed my bank accounts, my drivers licence back to my maiden name with just showing my birth certificate. Is my legal name for these court proceedings my MARRIED name or my MAIDEN name?

I am trying to fill out these forms to file this motion and I am at a loss. I already am filling out the motions and printing them out in every possible configuration so I am not sent away and lose time to go back and reprint.

[independentgal]

I spent almost the entire day at the courthouse yesterday for a free legal information clinic. The clerks at the courthouse directed me there due to my many questions. The lawyer was too busy to help me fill out the forms and now I am stuck.

I did find out that my file is at one courthouse in a different municipality than it was transferred to. There was a lot of confusion about that.

I don't recall transferring the file to this other town but I guess my lawyer must have mentioned it to me. There was a consent order and no one attended and this was decided. Go figure. Anyway, it has been transferred to a much smaller town and they only have so many motion days. I have until the 2nd of February, that is the only motion date available. But FIRST I think I have to call my ex's lawyer directly and ask if he would agree on consent to extend the timelines. Apparently, then all I have to do is bring 3 copies of 25 Order General filled out to the Court house.

I am at a loss of the wording to extend the timelines.
I have put the following and will head out to courthouse to see if this is correct.

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1. On consent, the timelines be extended to deal with outstanding issues.


I am having such anxiety of calling the lawyer I have to ask a family member to.

We will see what happens.

[McBroke]

Just another suggestion.... if anyone else has anything to suggest please do!!!

independentgal,

If you want a function done by a lawyer you don't necessarily have to retain one. Just pay the lawyer to go on your behalf on an as need basis. Get a fee list from a reputable firm and pay as you go and file all paperwork and save all bills. My brother did this, he hired a lawyer just to represent him at ahearing no retainer, a paralegal anything as long as you notify the court of the change. I believe this may be your best bet on the cheap. I'm not suggesting that you don't pay your last lawyer but work out a more agreaable pay schedule so you can continue to fight for yourself.

Again,
Good Luck,
Mcbroke

[independentgal]

McBroke

Yes I see you have been in the same boat as me!

I should change my name to MsBroke. First name "Beyond"!

I currently owe my lawyer 55K. I do not have child support, no custody or access decided, I lost my business/home due to fraud on my ex's part throughout the proceedings, I am stuck paying all business expenses that are jointly owed by my ex and I even though I have nowhere enough money.

My total legal bills are over 100K in the last two years. I have nothing. I am so devastated at the legal system, especially my lawyer who did nothing for me that I asked. He racked up bills despite me informing him I did not want him to respond to certain individuals who I am dealing with civilly(they are clients who won't pay significant amounts owing to my ex and I's jointly owned business). My family law lawyer has racked up bills for our business partnership issues and I am left holding the bag. I told him I would not authorize his hours working on those certain issues further and he told me if they kept contacting him, he would be forced to bill me for the time it took to read the material and respond back to them. My ex gave all of our clients that were his buddies my family law lawyers name in order to rack up my bills. He also gave them my unlisted phone number at home so until I changed my numberI got all sorts of strange phone calls. Real classy guy. Yet he hasn't paid me a rusty nickel towards me maintaining our joint assets(livestock) or our own son for the last two years for crying out loud!

It is very sad.

The only consolation is that it will take my lawyer more than five years to see his bill paid back at my payment arrangements(1000.00/month) and if he had just done his job, my settlement would have paid him back ALOT faster! Oh well. C'est la vie!

[McBroke]

independentgal

Just a suggestion,

If you need any copies of filed documents ie documents submitted to the court they will be at the courthouse under your file number. You can ask to see them and get useful info from them at any time. As to the other documents in your lawyers possession, he would probably discuss that with his partners as to releasing the documents, invariably the answer would probably be no. I experienced the same thing and floundered initially but my lawyer initially gave me a copy of everything. Then the money ran out. He did not release my file to me. So I got all the information from the courthouse and copies of forms I already had.

Mcbroke

[independentgal]

Thanks for the advice LV.

I do not think I have time to do a sufficient job at filing a case conference brief etc. etc. in time for the dismissal on Friday. I called the court house to see if there were any other options for me to postpone the dismissal. It is a very small town so they were kind to help me. The clerk told me that if I just wanted to postpone the dismissal to give me time to find legal counsel then I should fill out 3 forms-14b Motion form, 14a Affidavit General, and 25 Order General.

She said I could file the Motion 14b form w/o notice to the other side. I can get someone to swear the affidavit general at the courthouse as well.

She saidto bring in 3 copies of the 25 Order General which basically will say the same thing as the Affidavit which would be to ask to extend the timeline in order to obtain new legal counsel or something which she suggested to be 6 months.

She said they require no court appearances, just going to the courthouse to file these documents.


I am so lost with the procedures! She kindly told me about a free legal clinic tomorrow in a neighbouring town and I think I will fill out what I can tonight and bring it with me there tomorrow.

At least it will give me time to get my documents together.

Also, I have an outstanding account with my lawyer(he didn't want to continue on with me at my suggested payment arrangement) and I wondered if I am still legally able to get my file from him even though I owe him money(ALOT!).

There are many documents that I have not been privy to like my ex's examination and production of documents. These are crucial to me.


What do you think about my above suggestion for now?

[logicalvelocity]

independentgal,

as you mentioned

I wondered if you could direct me to the form I need to filll out to schedule another case conference?

All the court forms are found here

http://www.ontariocourtforms.on.ca/e...mily/index.jsp

You will need Form 17 - Case Conference Notice.

The forms are in pdf and word doc format. If you don't have ms word you can download open office here which is compatible with word docs so that you can use same to process the forms. A free open office download can be found here

http://www.openoffice.org/

Once you have form 17 completed, leave the date and time of the conference blank. Proceed to the court house and request a date for a case conference with the registrar. The Registrar will enter a date and time on your completed form 17 ( Notice of Case Conference) and will apply the court seal to same.

Once this is done, complete form 17A case conference. Write a brief paragraph on each outstanding issue. Remember that the Judge will not issue significant orders at the case conference, but it is a good time for procedural issues, such as obtaining disclosure, financial statements etc. The Judge may give an opinion. This is the time to request same.

Once the case conference brief is completed, serve it along with a completed form 13 or form 13.1 financial statement and the notice of case conference on the other party or their lawyer. Once service of the documents has been completed, file the documents right away with the registrar along with a completed affidavit of service Form 6b listing the documents that were served. The last document you will require is form 14c which is to be given to the Registrar to confirm the conference is going ahead with all the issues.

The case conference notice, case conference brief and financial statement must be SERVED and filed within 7 days of the held case conference.

see this guide for case conferences

http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.o...c/fc_part4.pdf

and for other

http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.o...fc/default.asp

lv

[independentgal]

Hi LV

I wondered if you could direct me to the form I need to filll out to schedule another case conference? Do I just take it to the courts and they file it and send a copy to the other side? Does it need to be served or just mailed to the other side?

I have until Friday to file this form to postpone the approaching dismissal of our pending motions etc.

Do I need to set a date for a case conference on this form or does that come later?

I think I will do this one by myself, will have to see about a lawyer in the near future as my ex is up to something and it really needs to be addressed as well.

[logicalvelocity]

independentgal,

You could schedule another case conference but no significant orders would be made. The intent of a case conference is to get the parties together perhaps come to settlement and for the court to issue procedural orders such as how the case may proceed.

At any time you could bring forth a motion to resolve some of the issues in the interim.


lv

[independentgal]

Ack! I accidentally deleted my long post.


Thanks LV and Jeff.

I am in Southern Ontario.

I have a major phobia of speaking in public. I suffer from moderate to severe anxiety at the thought of representing myself. Not an option I am afraid.

I had a case conference in Feb 2005 and the only thing decided was what bills got paid out of our business account. There's no money now, so that doesn't even matter anymore.

I have made about 5 offers to settle to my ex but he will not negotiate. He has basically won in that he has fraudulently obtained our assets and profited from his contempt of court. There is absolutely no motivation for him to settle issues. He is smug and happy at the resulting situation with the two of us. I was advised by my lawyer not to proceed with a contempt motion against him as it was costly, but he has been in contempt on a large scale since that advice.

Can I have another case conference or is my only option a settlement conference or trial?

[Jeff]

I agree with what LV said.

It sounds like you're in Ontario? If you're not ready to move your case forward and are looking for a quick and easy way to deal with the Notice of Approaching Dismissal, you can schedule a case conference. To get that process started, you just need to complete a simple one page form and file it with the court:
http://www.ontariocourtforms.on.ca/e...105_EN_fil.doc

You can also use the case conference as an opportunity to get your case on some sort of a schedule. Your case sounds complex enough that you may also want to ask that your case be case managed (not all courts do this). This would assign one judge to deal with all the procedural matters in your case so that it doesn't stall every time there's a dispute between the parties.

As for representing yourself, I think it is very possible - you just need to put in the time to learn things (I know, you're probably short of time with everything going on). However, your case sounds complex enough that it may make sense to make arrangements with a lawyer just to be able to consult with them from time to time - and pay for the consultation at the time you attend. It's also good to have contact with a lawyer in this way so that if there's an emergency you can turn to someone quickly for help.