Discovery/Access

slobarnuts · 2018-01-04T01:37:46+00:00

Any advice on how I compile and present these items BEFORE I hand it to my attorney

Your lawyer will ask you for this stuff, so you will be the one pulling it together in any case. (I've done this for my family court gongshow already.)

You're going to want 3 copies - one for your lawyer, one for her lawyer and one for the judge (if it goes to court). You can photocopy the docs but it must be single sided, all pages must be numbered, and organized into sections. Get all 78 items and scan them in to a computer. Make a PDF and then you hammer out additional copies as you need them. Print off a copy, punch holes in it, get a big assed 3 ring binder and and put each doc in it's own section using a divider. Then you manually, by hand, number all the paperwork from page 1 to the last, upper right hand corner, so if you refer to it at trial you can just state the page number. Then you make a table of contents for it, put it in front, and that's 1 of 3. It's usually as thick as a phonebook if you do it right. I actually used a printing service (i.e. like Staples) just to make copies, and the cost was comparable to buying a low end laser printer. Note: Your lawyer will also review your work, which they will bill you for, but you will save at least a thousand putting it together yourself.

Also my wife continues to go through her attorney over which days I can get my kid and it is costing me money.

If this is ongoing, next time your lawyer calls you about your ex trying to arrange visitation, you need give them shit for wasting your time and money. Get your lawyer to file for a hearing to establish parenting time. At the hearing your lawyer can tell the judge that your ex is trying to withhold access because your ex is refusing to communicate with you on parenting, which is "not in the best interests of the child". It will cost you between $1500 to $3500 for the hearing.

Any thoughts on how to minimize unnecessary bills?

Strangely enough, the way to save money is to NOT talk to your lawyer at all whenever possible. They bill you for every minute they see you. If your ex makes demands and then stalls on negotiations, they are trying to get to you give in by them making it expensive for you. They can do this because they know that at trial they will win and you will have to pay her legal fees and as well as your own. You CAN tell your lawyer to ignore them unless they have a better offer. If it is important they will call you only when it is appropriate then.

While advice is great most lawyers charge $300/hour + taxes, etc. If you think about it, a 30 minute conversation with them is more than a days wages for most people. So every time you phone them that's a day of your life you've given up just to have that conversation. You need to be patient and avoid talking to them, or keep your conversations short and very sporadic.

I haven't met a family lawyer who wasn't a shit eating scumbag. Good luck.

SkeptiCynical · 2018-01-05T04:08:42+00:00

Please read sidebar - we need to know the state, whether you have started divorce, etc.

You don't talk to her attorney. Your attorney talks to her attorney.

Tell your attorney you don't want him handling things you don't want to pay him for.

Title	Discovery/Access
Author	PaulLovegood
Upvotes	5
Comments	6
Date	January 4, 2018 12:18 AM UTC (8 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/Divorce_Men
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/Divorce_Men/comments/7nz13m/discoveryaccess/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/Divorce_Men/discoveryaccess.820287 https://theredarchive.com/post/820287

Comments