Legal Complaints:

Often people share their horrific experiences with the legal system.  One experience conveyed in the past was, a woman in our group stated that she failed to file a response to a divorce and received her husband received an automatic default judgement.  And, she said it was her husband’s lawyer whom told her she could do nothing. 

Just wanted to share a few things in response.  When dealing with any papers that come from court, just make sure you answer them immediately, even if that means writing a simple answer on a piece of paper and filing it with the clerk of court from where the notices came from.  Family court judges tend not to be so stringent on rules because they know that they are dealing with “lay” members of the public, whom most of the time do not understand what is happening.  Hence, if you at least write a response, in your own words, that would be helpful.  For example, I do not agree with what he is complaining about because x, y and z.  That is better than not responding at all. 

Also, do not ever accept legal advice from an opposing lawyer.  They are not supposed to give any advice anyway. 

Lastly, there is service of process.  The person in the group said her husband mailed the documents to her daughter’s house.  Her daughter signed for the document but never gave it to her.  That is a lack of service of process and can invalidate any claim/complaint.  Sometimes, husbands or opposing parties deliberately send notices to places they know the other party will not be.  For example, if you send a notice to Durham, NC, but know the opposing party left the state and is living in Wisconsin, well, you just violated the law/intent of the law.  You must properly serve a person, where they are living, if you know their whereabouts. 

One of my uncles, years ago, lived at the same home of his wife, my beloved aunt.  Well, he took out divorce papers on her, had them delivered via certified mail, and signed for the certified mail, and got a default judgment because she never attended court.  Well, she let him sly with that because she wanted the divorce, but, in reality she could have contested that action because she was never properly served.  Note, you have a limited time once you find out about such to invalidate any action. 

Just my two cents because it hurt me when I heard that happened to the person in the group.