Hi! I'm posting this on behalf of my friend who's basically going crazy at this point.
I'm hoping to get some feedback from readers, anything would be appreciated.
The following is basically in order of occurrence:
- My friend was married for about 25 years.
- He is a simple person who doesn't understand law or technology or anything modern. He understands working and giving his pay cheque to his wife.
- He put every asset in his wife's name.
- Then him and his wife divorced. Children in their mid 20's.
- Not knowing about law, he had his wife's lawyer appoint a lawyer for him.
- He signed all documents without reading (he has low reading comprehension) and the documents were not explained to him.
- He signed over 75% of all net assets to her.
- She got: $140,000 cash payment, $20,000 car, plus approx $10,000 misc furnishings. This was 3 years ago.
- This was not reported in the divorce agreement. The lawyer kept all of the papers, and then the papers "got lost".
- In the actual divorce agreement none of this settlement was mentioned at all. Instead it stated he would pay $700.oo per month until he died, reviewable every 5 years.
- He has worked and made his payments faithfully, however in the past year he has missed all of his payments. Partially because his income has taken a huge drop.
- His wife is living very nicely with her new boyfriend. But she is so smart there is very little way to prove this.
- Family Services then suspended his diverse license, put a note on his credit file and froze his bank account and put a garnishment on his wages.
- Because he can't drive, he is now unemployed.
- He currently has $20,000 in assets. (the man knows how to save money).
- He recently received a court subpoena stating that he must come to court to explain himself and or face judgment of up to 180 days in prison.
- Family services told us to our face that his wife will show up in court looking sickly and needy, and they (family services) will be there to defend her rights to alimony.
- He can't get a loan to pay her and even if they gave him his license his income isn't enough to support the $700 payments. He asked if he could pay $150 per month now and they (Family Services) laughed at him.
- He went to a laywer (and once again, not knowing about law, and not smart enough to ask us friends for help) the lawyer took $2500 and wrote a letter to Family Services, of which family services said is nonsense. He now has $0.00 to pay lawyers.
- 2005 income $35,000, 2004 income $47,000, 2003 income: $10,000
So that brings us up to today. The court date is in late March. Is there anything he can do?
Any advise? Any comments?
Is he basically screwed?
I'm hoping to get some feedback from readers, anything would be appreciated.
The following is basically in order of occurrence:
- My friend was married for about 25 years.
- He is a simple person who doesn't understand law or technology or anything modern. He understands working and giving his pay cheque to his wife.
- He put every asset in his wife's name.
- Then him and his wife divorced. Children in their mid 20's.
- Not knowing about law, he had his wife's lawyer appoint a lawyer for him.
- He signed all documents without reading (he has low reading comprehension) and the documents were not explained to him.
- He signed over 75% of all net assets to her.
- She got: $140,000 cash payment, $20,000 car, plus approx $10,000 misc furnishings. This was 3 years ago.
- This was not reported in the divorce agreement. The lawyer kept all of the papers, and then the papers "got lost".
- In the actual divorce agreement none of this settlement was mentioned at all. Instead it stated he would pay $700.oo per month until he died, reviewable every 5 years.
- He has worked and made his payments faithfully, however in the past year he has missed all of his payments. Partially because his income has taken a huge drop.
- His wife is living very nicely with her new boyfriend. But she is so smart there is very little way to prove this.
- Family Services then suspended his diverse license, put a note on his credit file and froze his bank account and put a garnishment on his wages.
- Because he can't drive, he is now unemployed.
- He currently has $20,000 in assets. (the man knows how to save money).
- He recently received a court subpoena stating that he must come to court to explain himself and or face judgment of up to 180 days in prison.
- Family services told us to our face that his wife will show up in court looking sickly and needy, and they (family services) will be there to defend her rights to alimony.
- He can't get a loan to pay her and even if they gave him his license his income isn't enough to support the $700 payments. He asked if he could pay $150 per month now and they (Family Services) laughed at him.
- He went to a laywer (and once again, not knowing about law, and not smart enough to ask us friends for help) the lawyer took $2500 and wrote a letter to Family Services, of which family services said is nonsense. He now has $0.00 to pay lawyers.
- 2005 income $35,000, 2004 income $47,000, 2003 income: $10,000
So that brings us up to today. The court date is in late March. Is there anything he can do?
Any advise? Any comments?
Is he basically screwed?
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