I subpoena’d 2008 and 2009 financials in November. The due date came and went. I received maybe 1/16 of the items requested at the end of December. Early January, attorneys had a pre-trial conference, where the judge imputed income and basically said how she would rule on all the custody topics we have stalled on in our custody/support order.
The order was drafted per the judges guidelines and my ex will not sign it and is still claiming his income is less but will not provide documentation. I think he is stalling because he knows it will be forever before we get a court date and he is manipulating his income, self-employed.
My question is, now that we are in 2010 and it could be 6 or more months before we go to court, how relevant will the 2008/2009 data be if I ever get it? Should I pay the attorney fee to have her RE-subpoena 2010 documents, if i can even do that? And when should I do that? It is like a moving target.
I have no idea when our case will ever get heard as the ball is in his court and our case was taken off the calendar pending his response to the judges guidelines. He and his attorney have not requested a new court date as of yet.
Second question, the suit was initially filed by him in September 09, but has been removed from the calendar twice, first we were going to settle and then removed after the pretrail hearing.
I am asking for retroactive support from September 09 forward, whenever the new amount is nailed down. Is this acceptable/standard?
Lastly, what can I do to stop the stalling? How can I get this moving forward? I don’t know what to tell my attorney to do. 3 weeks have passed since the pretrial conference.
I believe you are confusing discovery requests with a subpoena. Discovery requests go to the other side, subpoena’s go to third parties (employers and banks holding the records. The 08/09 info is still relevant as it may be used to show a pattern of income. I would suggest you get the 2010 records using a discovery request.
If your ex is still non compliant have your attorney subpoena the records directly from your ex’s employer.
If the case was filed in September is not uncommon for you not to have been heard yet. Depending on the county, it could take 9 months or more before you get to trial.
There is no employer…he is self-employed.
So I can ask for a second round of discovery requests? Should I wait until a court date is set or just keep requesting current financial info every few months until the case is heard?
Lastly, what can I do to stop the stalling? How can I get this moving forward? I don’t know what to tell my attorney to do. 3 weeks have passed since the pretrial conference. They have not counter offered or asked for a new court date. Can I as the defendent, ask for this to be put back on the calendar?
You may file a motion to compel the documents which have not been turned over, up to and including his pay information up to the trial date. Discovery requests are on going and the party charged with producing the documents is charged with updating them to current status.
You should not be responsible for telling your attorney what to do. If you feel that your attorney does not have a good handle on what is going on, you may want to consider replacing your lawyer.
Depending on the terms of the pre-trial order, your trial date should be set to occur in the next few months.