Conference Brief Not Served - What to Do?

[#1StepMom]

2 days late, that sucked....good luck and keep me posted on how it goes

Oh Frustrated... I just read carefully her reasons for seeking costs:
1. Because she works full time, she doesn't have time to allocate to the court process and as a result felt obligated to retain a lawyer to assist in the court proceedings.
2. She borrowed "substantial" amounts of money to cover her legal fees associated with this case and is now in great debt.
3. Unable to take out more loans, she had to dismiss her lawyer and represent herself.
4. She had to take time off work in order to learn and follow the correct court procedures.
5. My husband's request for a reduction in child support due to his loss of employment was "premature" as he still made close to the same amount for 2008 on which his previous child support amount was based (duh, he lost his job end of October - and only obtained employment this month) and he continued paying that previously ordered amount (duh, because it was automatically withdrawn from his account by FRO on a monthly basis and he could do nothing about it without a court order).
6. My husband's conduct in attempting to obtain changes through a 14B motion (when she and her lawyer failed to file and serve the necessary paperwork), causing her to incur further legal costs, also needs to be taken account in determining his responsibility to pay her costs in this case.

Like... WTF?! Really?! I shake my head in frustration.

All we ever wanted was to get a fair reduction in child support due to my husband's termination of employment... and here she is throwing curveballs. Grrr!

[frustrated11]

2 days late, that sucked....good luck and keep me posted on how it goes

[#1StepMom]

Well, the forms came in the mail today. 2 days late, but they came.

We tried filing form 14B ourselves a while back, as our motion was unanswered, but that got us nowhere, and only caused the other party to seek costs against us, which costs we're now trying to fight. It's quite infurriating.

[frustrated11]

we were told that if none of the proper forms where in by date...on either side that it may go forward on form 23C, affidavit for uncontested...I'm praying the ex doesn't file

[#1StepMom]

Thanks for sharing, Independentgal.

I have a feeling she'll come to court brief in hand the day of, just as her former lawyer did on our case conference date.

It's just so frustrating.

[independentgal]

In all probability it will be adjourned when you get there.

My conference was adjourned in march when my ex failed to produce a brief. It was rescheduled to this month and he showed up again without a brief. At that time, the judge asked him if he had anything to say about not complying with the timelines for disclosure and filing a brief and he said that he had nothing to say. I was awarded costs for a conference(unheard of I am told) and the endorsement stated my ex was in contempt of a prior order(for disclosure) and must produce documentation within 30 days or his pleadings will be struck.

As the clerk told you, they don't want any more delays. When one party does not comply they usually have only one chance to make it right, and then the judge will have less sympathy for their excuses. The other party is actually delaying the proceedings(for their own motivation) in your case.

Good luck, just be prepared to ask for an order to be made for disclosure(or filing a brief within 30 days).

[#1StepMom]

We have a settlement conference this week and have yet to receive the necessary paperwork from my stepson's mom. When my husband served her with our required and ordered documents last week, he reminded her that she has until the end of last week to serve him with her documents. She never responded to his reminder, nor have we heard a peep from her in the last week. Her documents were due to be served on my husband this past Friday. We asked the court clerk if anything could be done (we were anticipating not receiving the documents from her on time) and he just shrugged and said that in reality, there's nothing we can do. Even if we file a contempt of dealine against her, the judge will just ignore it, and the court won't refuse accepting her late documents (as it says they would according to the Family Law rules) because they don't want to cause any delays.

So what are our options now? Any ideas?