Posted on 12/19/2004 12:35:53 AM PST by DaiHuy
Dear Freepers:
I need your help badly. I need to find a divorce attorney in CA that is willing to help someone who is basically indigent.
My Nephew Bill was divorced in 2002. Since then his ex wife Marina has been raking him over the coals. She has hired a string of attornies, each of whom drops the case like a hot potato after about 6 months. Marina lies not only to her lawyers, but to the courts with impunity.
Marina has gotten everything she asks for in court, and continues asking. She has gotten over $800.00 a month in child support. She bought a $250,000 home and a Lexus while her lawyer claimed Marina was living in poverty. Marina's lawyer also told the judge that she overheard Bill threaten to kill their baby. The judge never questioned it, and ordered that Bill only be allowed to see the child for 1 Day a month, and then only under supervised visitation, even though a psychologist said that Bill was not a threat to the baby.
These are just two examples of what is being done to him by the CA "justice" system.
Here lies the problem. Bill's only income is from a Coast Gaurd disability pension, and his GI bill. After child support payments Bill has approximately $200-300.00 a month to live on. He has been living in his brothers house since the child support was ordered.
Now Marina has a new lawyer who just sent a Subpeona Duces Tecum to Bill, demanding all his financial records from 2002 until present. Bill's lawyer is basically useless. She does not attempt to refute anything that Marina's lawyers do, and now does not even return his phone calls. She is afraid she won't be paid, so she has essentially dumped him.
I need to find a Lawyer who is willing to work with Bill. Bill cannot afford huge payments, so it will have to be someone willing to take what he/she can and do the work for compassions sake. Bill will pay what he can.
I am not asking for a free ride, just someone willing to show some compassion and help out my nephew.
Thank You all for taking the time to read this, if you know someone who can help, or if you are an attorney and are willing to help please post a private reply to me I will give your info to my nephew and he can contact you.
Again thank you all for your help
Sincerly Daihuy
Tell you brother or who ever it is to move to Thailand and forget about the alimony, start a new life and never come back to the U.S. again.
Look up Mark Geragos. He's probably looking for work and maybe he could get Bill sentenced to death.
I bet if he ignores his problems they will eventually go away. It always works for me, anyway.
If this case is so flagrant, then why don't Bill's lawyers bring stuff like this up? It's kind of hard to hide a $250K home from the courts since a lot of paperwork is filed with the state when one buys a home.
Maybe I'm jaded, but this doesn't pass the smell test here.
Maybe we should consider that as a kind of "Plan 'B'"....
You can't get blood out of a turnip.
If your nephew is as broke as you say he is, well, he can just show his financial records, so the judge can see it too, and his ex-wife won't get anything.
Heck, she may have to pay him alimony.
Beyond that, I think Jacoby and Meyers firm is supposed to charge more reasonable fees, but otherwise I don't know anything about them.
There may be a fathers' rights organization that may help you find a lawyer...I'd Goggle "father's rights" and see what you can find. Sorry I can't be any more help, but I know what he's going through and I empathize, unlike some others on this board -- my husband had to deal with a similar situation.
Look under attorneys in the yellow pages. They show a listing for attorney services - you can speak to an attorney for free. After you explain your situation they can direct you to lawyer who can help you, pro bono (without charge).
If the guy is currently military - why isn't the military helping him ..?? I find that very curious. Also .. being current military - if you have a repub for a representative - you could call their office and see if they know of a lawyer who would do pro bono work. If the rep is military - he probably knows some lawyer who was in the military who could help.
It's just going to take a lot of phone calls. Good luck!
Once again. The best time to post these kind of things are in the morning when half the Eastern seabord isn't asleep.
"If the guy is currently military - why isn't the military helping him ..?? I find that very curious."
It's called JAG.
Why can't Bill work? Disabled? Is he reasonably intelligent and computer literate?
"After child support payments Bill has approximately $200-300.00 a month to live on. He has been living in his brothers house since the child support was ordered". In Alabama they can't leave a spouce without enough money to live on. So the law is probabaly the same there. But he will sure need damn agressive lawyer.
OK Folks first to the person who said "move to Thailand and don't come back." My family has been in the USA since before it was the USA, so think before you speak.
My nick is daihuy because I am a Viet Nam Vet.
Bill is not in the military, he is disabled and receives a small pension.
2nd I am looking for legal referals, not glib comments. So if you don't know an aggressive CA lawyer who is willing to help, then keep quiet.
Bill's only income is from a Coast Gaurd disability pension, and his GI bill.
He is disabled And he is not currently in the military.It's in the article.
That is a question we have been asking. Her answer, "it will only piss off the judge."
As for the smell test, I don't give a damn, it is what it is.
Here is a link to a site that could probably give you more help than here.
http://www.fathersrightsinc.com/
I understand that you are also trying to address alimony issues etc... but maybe they could give you more direction on that as well.
Ugh. Well, I'd say it's time your nephew represented himself in court.
I just did a quick google search on "california legal aid", you may want to look through the various links, some of them may have what you are looking for.
But you and Bill need to be prepared to do some research on your own.
You shouldn't get angry -- this is a message board, not a legal referral service, people post, what they post, and you hope someone hits on something you can use.
I would suggest you check out what I found and do more searches yourself.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=california+legal+aid&btnG=Google+Search
Among other things it brought up this site:
http://www.divorcesource.com/
which seems to have a place to search for legal professionals for particular areas and states.
Good luck.
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