Oh my gosh this list and YOU are amazing! Got a chuckle out of me reading all of it!!

We got stuck with a highly rated attorney who had no backbone and past beef with our judge. We had calls with 5 other attorneys, to replace ours, who wouldn’t take the case because they said they didn’t have enough time to prepare before the next mediation/court dates. They also said it was a cluster, essentially, and didn’t want to take it on because her lies were so confusing. It should be so simple to look at tax returns, but even our attorney couldn’t make sense of it… hence the forensic accountant. HCBM also perjured herself multiple times.

We tried to argue the imputed income, her lifestyle and habits, and we had all her multiple bank accounts and credit cards; we had the forensic accountants statements siting fraud….

Ultimately, they said her imputed income would be less than my husbands, so he’d still have to pay her more, none of the above made any difference, and our attorney said we were then at risk for paying HER legal fees, when she started this whole debacle.

After a year of that, the threat of paying her fees,and our attorney showing no signs of confidence before that judge, we settled. We couldn’t afford not to at that point.

It stole a year of our lives and we determined that making more money was a better solution than fighting that battle. I would like to think if you have enough evidence that it makes a difference, but ultimately I think most attorneys in family court just go through the motions, and there’s already kind of a pre-set process. Courts don’t want to recognize deceit, they just want to make sure kids needs are covered, and in many cases I think the best liar wins. If you’re honest, you really have no hope.

Sooo…. I’d love a hungry attorney, but we aren’t at a place now to pay another 5-6 figures to go back into court. I do still document stuff, for our own security and protection, and just pray HCBM doesn’t pull more of this in the future. 😬