| Posted by Julie on May 04, 19105 at 19:16:17: my sister in-law is involved in a very nasty divorce. Over a year a ago, my brother in-law physically abused her. She did not call the police the night of the incident, but because of other abusive behavior she filed for a retraining order. She did have witnesses to the incident and also doctors report and pictures of the injuries. Divorce petition was signed back in March 04 and he moved out of the residence. She has been maintaining all of the household expenses with having to borrow money. He was ordered by the court to give support but he is in contempt of those orders. He is on restricted visits with his children also. He keeps continuing the crimminal case, which apparently keeps continuing the family law case. She is getting very frustrated as she is already so involved with the current attorney representing her, but when matters come up and correspondence is sent to her that the case keeps getting continued she leaves messages for both the attorney and the paralegal and no calls her back. She just found out through the courts that the retraining order is no longer on record and she can only assume that her attorney did not follow through with what ever steps were necessary to extend. So, the questions are: 1. Is this common law practice not to return phone calls to your client to keep you abreast of your case? Example: Opposing cousel requested a continuance of the family matter that was to meet in May, and her cousel agreed without even consulting her on this matter. She was preparing to move forward on the family law because he has not been paying her the family support that 2. He apparently is also telling the children there is no more money, everything is gone and even the equity in the home is gone because of his mounting legal fees and demise of the family business (even though there is plenty of evidence that he is living high on the hog and has steady work with the business.) Seperation date was established in January 04, the biggest community property is their primary residence of which she has been maintaining and having to borrow money from family to survive and feed the kids. Question is, as he is choosing to mount his legal fees because he keeps continuing his cases, is he entitled to use up all of their equity in the home to pay his fees and debts that he has encurred, or is he only entitled to half of the equity in the home and any of his debts that exceed his half when the house is sold, would he have to figure another way to pay off the debts that he has incurred. What is the best way to find an attorney that you can trust to handle your case and not brush you off and yet bill you for breathing? She does not live in the LA area, but does live in the state of California.
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