I struggled and made it a point to make my monthly child support, and alimony payments. Due to business conditions, my income had fallen dramatically, and I was unable to keep up with the additional court ordered obligations. Those obligations had been based on the projected income of projects currently under contact. Unfortunately these accounts receivable did not come in, and in an effort to help me collect the funds, I hired my ex to collect from those clients. It seemed appropriate; she would get the benefit of those collections by my being able to meet these financial requirements. I also offered her 1/3 of the collected monies for her services. Look how well she had done getting the money from me. She agreed to this, I gave her copies of all the contracts, and documentation. She hired her attorney to assist her with the collection, and I waited for the funds to come rolling in. It did not materialize.
Several months later, I had begun a new project which enabled me begin to pay down some of the additional monies I was obligated to meet, and made some additional payments to her to in that regard. Yet, the day after New Years, I was served a summons, ordering me to appear before the judge to show cause as to why I should not be charged with Contempt of Court. Remembering my previous fiasco with an attorney, I decided to represent myself in this hearing. As I was able to begin responding to the items listed in the summons, and make additional payments toward them as my work began to improve. I hoped that paying off the items listed in the plea, my ex would cancel the hearing. A week before the hearing, I felt that I had answered all but three of the items listed, the transfer of her credit cards to me, which I was unable to accomplish due to the disarray of my current credit standing but had reimbursed her or the payments that she had made; the charges for the children’s tuition to private schools the previous year; and her attorney’s fees. I asked if she would cancel the case, and was told that was not acceptable. I began gathering what data and back up materials that I could to show what payments I have made, and to finish my income taxes to show my ability to pay. Trouble was, as I was in the midst of moving my office to my apartment, that most of my canceled checks papers were in my vehicle that was repossessed, which was no longer available. I went to the bank, and asked for duplicate checks and statements for those that were missing. The evening before the hearing, a freak snowstorm blew through the south, and the next morning at 7:00 AM I received a call from her attorney stating that the court has been postponed because of the weather, and that she would be sending me another summons when the court date could be rescheduled. That would give me additional time to gather my resources, and further solidify my case. The Monday before the hearing, I decided that I had best ask an attorney to represent me, and leafed through the Yellow Pages, and selected one based on the information that said they handled Family Law, and Contempt of Court cases. I called and got an appointment that afternoon. I took all the data I had gathered, and my financial information to the meeting. I was very leery when I arrived at the attorney’s office, remembering what had happened to me with my last attorney. Yet, after I was seated in his office, and he read through the Divorce Decree, and he asked, “What is this supervised visitation about?” I felt that I had to tell him that I was transgender, and that I had told that to my previous attorney, about the secret meetings with her attorney, and the separate visitation hearing. He asked if I was embarrassed being transgender, because my face had turned red as I talked about it. Well, I just didn’t feel comfortable coming out to complete strangers. He said that is not a thing to be worried about, and he began to tell me things that let me understand that he was not a hostile attorney. I took a little time chatting with him at the outset to feel comfortable with telling him about myself, and being as open and honest as I could with him. He told me that he had just defeated my ex’s attorney on two proceedings, and that her clients had been lesbians. I said, “Sounds like payback time.” Turns out that he was a good friend of my ex’s attorney, and when he called her to tell her that I had just asked him to represent me in this matter, the first thing she said to him was, “He’s going to become a woman.” And then he said I know, he told me all about that. Then he asked what the settlement terms were, and she faxed him a list of their demands.
After their conversation, my attorney asked why had I hired my first attorney represent me. I told him that an employee had recommended him. My attorney said that I had a very strong case on malpractice against that first attorney, and that he wouldn’t have hired him to take care of a traffic ticket. My spirits were lifted, I had at last found representation that will be of real service, and I may get redress for all the difficulty that was created from that representation. My new attorney and I began working together, building our case. He had given me a list of tasks to accomplish, how and where to do so. The day of the hearing, I had still been unable to get copies of many of my checks, but I met with my attorney to visit with the plaintiff and her attorney in a conference call. They had prepared a list of demands that were different from those that were listed in the complaint, and as a result, there was to be no agreement to settlement. My attorney tried to understand why there were differences, and I could see that settlement was not going to be possible. I was glad of that, as my previous attorney had just buckled under to their demands. This guy was trying to really represent me. We would meet at the courthouse, and the hearing would continue. We arrived at the judge’s courtroom, and were invited to wait for the judge to arrive. A few moments later, we learned that the judge had been called away due to a family emergency, and that another judge would hear the case. This was to be a very bad occurrence. Our hearing was on Friday, at 4:00 PM.
It began on a bad note, and turned worse. My attorney began the proceeding asking for a continuance as I had retained him only days before the hearing, and that was denied. The my ex wife gave her testimony, stating that according to her records, I owed her a total of $13,000.00 of uncollected payments, and at the time of this hearing, although I had made all of those payments, I had been unable to present proof that I had indeed made them. As a result of my bad bookkeeping, the substitute judge ruled in my ex-wife’s favor, and charged me with Willful Contempt of Court, and ordered me to make payment to her of $13,000.00 within 10 days, or turn myself in at the County Jail until such payment has been made. I wanted to pack up all I could pack into my vehicle, and run, as there was no way I was going to be able to raise that amount of money in that amount of time, and there was no way I was going to turn myself in to the County Jail.
Thanks for listening.
