Anyone know any decent divorce attorney's??? (also venting)
Ok, I have to come to grips with my fiance having to be in contact with his soon to be ex wife because of their kids and grandkids but this is getting rediculous. We had our number changed last year (his idea, finally) because of the fact that they would call here 4-8 times a night from the moment he would get home from work till we went to bed. Once we got it changed, she was told we didn't have a phone. He would call to talk to his kids (ages 23, 21, 14) but block the number with *67 so it wouldn't come up on their caller ID. The number is unlisted and private but still comes up on caller id...go figure...she has been trying to get the number for quite a while now but no success. Today we get a phone call and its the ex. She says she got the number "from work"...who's work??? hers??? his??? no idea. How the hell can she get it. Granted, it was for an emergency but she has been told to call his work and they can page him and give him the message to call her. He's pissed, i am fuming... She lives in Dundalk, we are in Glen Burnie and shows up when ever they feel like it, unannounced. Of course unannounced cause she didn't have the number to call and bug the crap out of us. Now DF has to go to court over her being thrown out of the place she and the kids were living in because she would blow her money and not pay her rent. Almost $3,000.00 in back rent and repairs. Suposedly she talked to someone at the rental company to take him off the lease, which come to find out, never happened so he is being held liable because of it. He hasn't lived with her in almost 3 yrs. And no matter how many times I told him to get that electric bill out of his name, he didn't and we got stuck with her $800 electric bill which BGE very nicely tacked on to our electric bill and they won't do anything about it. She has totally F***** us and I am tired of all the bs. He called an attorney once to find out about a divorce and the guy told him that since he has a son that isn't 18 he could be looking at about $400 a month taken out of his pay for child support. We can barely afford our rent, BGE has sent us plenty of turn off notices cause we can't get it paid off, you all know about gas prices...we are suffering. Don't they include her job's pay as how they would determine how much child support gets paid by him???? We need an attorney who is willing to work with us. Don't know if she would just sign papers for an uncontested divorce, she's that much of a biatch. I am so pissed.....This is the time i would turn to food and thank god i can't. If i did i would get sick to my stomach. If anyone knows something we can do to get her the hell out of our lives, divorced from him so we can get married, and without draining his paycheck for child support, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for listening....I usually don't vent like this to people I have never met before, but I am stuck and stressed to my limit.
Patrick Draga in Rockville. I know that's a long way from Glen Burnie, but I saw this guy in action when I was clerking at the Court of Special Appeals for Judge Thieme. Draga is amazing, and his brief was so good that I had to do very little work to turn it into the judge's opinion. Josephine Lynch in Annapolis is also supposed to be pretty good.
Re child support: I don't do family law, but I do know that it's determined by a formula that's based on income, who has custody and how much of the time, etc. The formula is actually determined by federal law. He'd only have to pay for the 14-year-old. I know that from the perspective of a second wife (I am one) that child support can seem unreasonable. However, back in the bad old days when I was a kid and there were no formula and no serious collection efforts, many children suffered. Nevertheless, I can also understand not wanting to put money in the hands of an irresponsible other parent. Would he consider going for custody? Especially if the child is a boy, a strong argument could be made for the dad having custody. Then she'd pay him child support.
I've actually come to like my husband's ex, but the way we got the divorce moving at the time was to pay her legal fees. It turns out that she really couldn't afford the lawyer, so she was more than happy to cooperate when we offered to pay the fees.
Hope this helps.
Edie (passed the Maryland Bar exam, but doesn't practice family law)
Another name I've thought of, and closer to you: Cathy Vitale. She's in Glen Burnie. I've met Cathy because she clerked for my judge and she'd drop by chambers occasionally when I was working for him. She seems nice. She also has the reputation as a tiger. A friend of my SIL's used her and did very well. What I don't understand is how she ran up an $800 electric bill. Was that for a month, or more? The houses in Dundalk are a lot smaller than mine, and my worst bill is around $350. Granted, we've done a lot of things to make our house more energy-efficient, but still....
She ran the electric bill up by not paying the bill for 4 months i think it was. Just like her rent, looking at the summons DF got served with last week, she didn't pay her rent for 3 months. Of course if she didn't have all of the family living with her and not helping with anything, probably would have helped but still.... We are struggling ourselves but try to make sure we pay at least something to all of our bills every pay, even if they aren't paid in full. My income consists of social security, which isn't much, doesn't even cover all of the rent we pay, and DF constantly gets screwed over by the company he works for. Really considering therapy to try and deal with all the stress. Tired of breaking down at least twice a month cause of the bull crap. Thank god my divorce was quick but ex is still punishing me for leaving him by making it difficult to see my kids... (another long story). Thanks for the names. Will check into them and talk to my man to see what he wants to do.
If you SO's name is on the lease and as a co-owner of the utility accounts, I don't see how he can get out of paying for it. As long as he signed on the dotted line, he is responsible for it. Despite him leaving, and him not actually "using" the apartment or the electricity, he is still responsible for it. When he signed the lease, he agreed to be financially responsible for it - in whole or in part - with his ex. Since she's not paying, it is only right that they come after him.
Get his name off of the joint accounts IMMEDIATELY.
Most Active
Recent Topics
