Good day all,
I'm looking for some advice on what options I have for my first court appearance this Thursday May 16th.
A little background first...
I have 3 daughters (currently age 22, 19 and 15) who were residing with there mother for the last 8 years.
My middle daughter began living with me at the end of her high school year on a permanent basis on at the end of June, 2018. After her falling out with her mother (who kicked her out of her home in March of 2018) she split time at my house and with her boyfriend from March 2018 - June 2018. In an effort to have the least impact on her final semester at school and to be able to continue to work at her part-time job I arranged to allow my daughter to drive my fathers (he's retired and rarely drives) vehicle to commute back and forth.
She successfully passed all her courses and was accepted at the university of Guelph for the Fall 2018 semester.
I paid the entire university costs for the year including tuition, residence, books, meal plan, etc. to the tune of $22,000. I'm now paying for my daughters off campus home for her 2nd year of school. My daughter stayed with me on breaks during the year and I encouraged her to have a relationship with her mother. They made up and throughout the year she would visit with her mother but never stayed overnight with her.
I attempted to reach out to her lawyer in August of 2018 to indicate the change in circumstance regarding my oldest daughter working full time after graduating from university and living arrangements with my middle daughter.
I received a response a month later from her lawyer later indicating that he would be retiring and that he would not be taking on any other issues. I tried to work things out with my former spouse outside of the court process to update the court order around child support for our eldest and a change w.r.t. our middle daughter and post secondary expenses.
Fast forward to the end of September 2018 and I receive a letter from her new lawyer indicating that she is now representing my former spouse and that she intends to work outside the court process to resolve the issues.
At first I'm please to hear that and optimistic this will not require the family court system. I send detailed correspondence of the costs of university and the proportionate share owed by my former spouse along with requests for any outstanding s7 expenses they may have (dental, extracurricular, etc). I receive no reply's.
I receive excuse after excuse (other cases, tied up in a trial, vacation, etc) about why there is no meaningful response from them.
I send them an affidavit of residency signed by my middle daughter (and sealed by an attorney) stating that her settled intention is to remain living with me for the duration of her post-secondary studies and that she began living with me on a full time basis on July 1st 2018 (just to simply things).
Again, no responses from them (former spouse and her new lawyer).
Finally, in April of this year I serve them with a motion to change form (Form 15 and 15a) as I can get no response from them. I'm basically looking to have child support officially dropped for my 22 year old (which they agreed to in e-mail exchanges over the last 9 months) and child support changed for my middle daughter and her share of expenses paid for university.
My daughter has told me that her mother has attempted everything under the sun to get her to come back and live with her. I won't go into the details but it suffice to say it involved anger, guilt, manipulation...
They did not consent and we have our first appearance this Thursday. Will a case conference automatically be setup or is there any other option?
I'm self representing.
What a colossal waste of time over something so basic. I can't image how they could not consent to this. Definitely not in my daughters best interest to have to be dragged through this. As I indicated above, my daughter is 19 and just wants to stay with me when she is not in school as it is drama and stress free, (her words).
Also, do I have to fill out any form indicating that I will be there on Thursday?
Sorry to be long winded and thanks in advance
I'm looking for some advice on what options I have for my first court appearance this Thursday May 16th.
A little background first...
I have 3 daughters (currently age 22, 19 and 15) who were residing with there mother for the last 8 years.
My middle daughter began living with me at the end of her high school year on a permanent basis on at the end of June, 2018. After her falling out with her mother (who kicked her out of her home in March of 2018) she split time at my house and with her boyfriend from March 2018 - June 2018. In an effort to have the least impact on her final semester at school and to be able to continue to work at her part-time job I arranged to allow my daughter to drive my fathers (he's retired and rarely drives) vehicle to commute back and forth.
She successfully passed all her courses and was accepted at the university of Guelph for the Fall 2018 semester.
I paid the entire university costs for the year including tuition, residence, books, meal plan, etc. to the tune of $22,000. I'm now paying for my daughters off campus home for her 2nd year of school. My daughter stayed with me on breaks during the year and I encouraged her to have a relationship with her mother. They made up and throughout the year she would visit with her mother but never stayed overnight with her.
I attempted to reach out to her lawyer in August of 2018 to indicate the change in circumstance regarding my oldest daughter working full time after graduating from university and living arrangements with my middle daughter.
I received a response a month later from her lawyer later indicating that he would be retiring and that he would not be taking on any other issues. I tried to work things out with my former spouse outside of the court process to update the court order around child support for our eldest and a change w.r.t. our middle daughter and post secondary expenses.
Fast forward to the end of September 2018 and I receive a letter from her new lawyer indicating that she is now representing my former spouse and that she intends to work outside the court process to resolve the issues.
At first I'm please to hear that and optimistic this will not require the family court system. I send detailed correspondence of the costs of university and the proportionate share owed by my former spouse along with requests for any outstanding s7 expenses they may have (dental, extracurricular, etc). I receive no reply's.
I receive excuse after excuse (other cases, tied up in a trial, vacation, etc) about why there is no meaningful response from them.
I send them an affidavit of residency signed by my middle daughter (and sealed by an attorney) stating that her settled intention is to remain living with me for the duration of her post-secondary studies and that she began living with me on a full time basis on July 1st 2018 (just to simply things).
Again, no responses from them (former spouse and her new lawyer).
Finally, in April of this year I serve them with a motion to change form (Form 15 and 15a) as I can get no response from them. I'm basically looking to have child support officially dropped for my 22 year old (which they agreed to in e-mail exchanges over the last 9 months) and child support changed for my middle daughter and her share of expenses paid for university.
My daughter has told me that her mother has attempted everything under the sun to get her to come back and live with her. I won't go into the details but it suffice to say it involved anger, guilt, manipulation...
They did not consent and we have our first appearance this Thursday. Will a case conference automatically be setup or is there any other option?
I'm self representing.
What a colossal waste of time over something so basic. I can't image how they could not consent to this. Definitely not in my daughters best interest to have to be dragged through this. As I indicated above, my daughter is 19 and just wants to stay with me when she is not in school as it is drama and stress free, (her words).
Also, do I have to fill out any form indicating that I will be there on Thursday?
Sorry to be long winded and thanks in advance
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