Thursday, July 07, 2005

Lying about the evaluation order

My wife's lawyer, Ms. Jennifer J. Gray, just sent me this proposed "Findings and Order After Hearing regarding the hearing on June 29, 2005."
1. The court orders the Respondent to participate in a psychological evaluation.

2. Respondent is ordered to advance all fees for this psychological evaluation; the issue of allocation is reserved.

3. Dr. Melissa Berenge is to be noticed of the doctor chosen to do the psychological evaluation, and she will prepare the court order.

4. Petitioner shall have custody of the minors for vacation from July 23, 2005 through August 6, 2005, without interruption.

5. Respondent is ordered to comply with the court's previous order to pay Petitioner's attorney fees in the amount of $20,000, in incremental payments of $5,000 per month commencing July 1, 2005.

6. Respondent is to comply with the previous order regarding discovery and to provide copies of his 2004 income tax return or request for extension and information regarding his 2005 income to date, within a reasonable time. If Respondent fails to comply with this discovery order, Petitioner's counsel is directed to file a second motion to compel responses to discovery.

7. The matter is set for further Review Hearing on issues of parenting, child support and status of psychological evaluation, on July 27, 2005, at 8:30 a.m. in Department 4.
It continues to amaze me how Ms. Gray is willing to misrepresent the judge's orders. The judge ordered both my wife and myself to get the psychological evaluation, with the liability for the fees to be shared equally. I agreed to front the cash if necessary, as long as I am reimbursed for her share.

Ms. Gray is trying to sneak in an order to just have me get a psychological evaluation, and hope no one notices. Surely judges have caught her in this sort of dishonesty before. She is dishonest in nearly everything she does, as far as I can see. It is amazing that she does not get punished for it.

Update: Just to clarify, this was Ms. Gray's proposed order. The judges let the lawyer write up the orders so that they can just sign them. I will have to write to the judge and point out the error.

I've had this problem before. Sometimes I think that the judges don't know what they ordered. I guess I'll have to get a transcript.

In this case, Ms. Gray sent me the court clerk's version, which said:
IT IS SO ORDERED:
PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION:
The parties to participate in a psychological evaluation with Respondent to advance the fees and the issue of allocation reserved.
That is not quite right either, but at least it says that both of us have to get evaluated.

Ms. Gray's proposed order has other inaccuracies as well, and I am pretty sure that she is double-billing me on her attorney fees. I guess that I will have to make some future motion to prove it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go get yourself a lawyer!!! The money you spend may very well save you so much more in the long run, and you will know that you are doing the very best to not let your wife and her lawyer get away with all this badgering and misrepresentation! Good Luck.

Anonymous said...

Do you know where your wife is going "on vacation" with your daughters for 2 weeks? Do you know who she is going with? Will your daughters be with your wife at all times, or will she be leaving them for long periods of time with an unknown babysitter? Do you even have a right to such information as their father?.... Just wondering how messed up this custody stuff can get....Will your wife "let" YOU take your daughters on vacation away from her for 2 weeks? Can the court order her to keep the children in state? Can the court order her to disclose in writing her complete itenery with contact numbers?.....

Anonymous said...

Check out Custody.com! They have this great e-book on how to win child custody with professional advice from an expert family lawyer and two parents who have both won child support. The site should be back up and running soon.

George said...

My daughter says that the trip was supposed to be a surprise, but she somehow found out that they were going to Massachusetts. I have no control over her use of babysitters, and I have not seen an itinerary. I am supposed to supposed to get the kids for my own 2-week period, but my wife says that she intends to cheat me out of it. I'll post more about that later.

Anonymous said...

I highly recommend that you request full detailed records of your wife's lawyer's billing - total accounting with hours billed, rates for each hour, court filing fees etc.

When my brother's wife left him for her boyfriend who she had been having an affair with for quite awhile before leaving him for the other guy, she wanted as much money as possible from my brother so that she wouldn't have to work and still be able to play all the time with the new guy; so, she hired her cousin as her lawyer, and then had him over-bill my brother considerably, mandated to be paid by him by the judge, and later on he found out that the cousin was kicking down to her the over-pay so that she could have my brother's money quicker than the court system worked.... nasty evil woman. Anyway, I think that I remember you writing that your wife's lawyer is a friend of the boyfriend that she left you for..... Worth checking up on by you and your lawyer if your gut is questioning the billing.