Here Are the Five Common Reasons Why Your Case May Be Delayed
Video Transcribed: So let’s talk about five things you might be doing that are delaying your case in family court. My name is Brian L. Jackson. I’m a Tulsa men’s lawyer here with Dads.Law, where fathers are not disposable. I want to talk about five common things that I tend to see guys doing that will delay their cases.
Number one thing I see is not providing your proof of income in a timely manner. This is one that is a really serious problem that I get. Cases get delayed all the time because of this because guys don’t give us their financial information in a timely manner and you can’t do a temporary order hearing without that information. So as a starting point, have your proof of income. That means six months of pay stubs, a year’s worth of bank records, and last year’s taxes, at a minimum. Have that ready to go, preferably have that ready to go at your Planned Parenting conference or at your first court appearance if it’s a motion to modify. The sooner you have that ready to go, the faster your case moves.
Number two cause, not complying with discovery. Written discovery is going to be a fact in family court. The only time it’s really not a fact is if you have a truly uncontested situation, where you’re just going to enter an order. Otherwise, guess what? You are not going to get anywhere without doing written discovery. And all you’re going to do is piss through your resources, getting sanctioned by the court, because you’re not complying with discovery. So if you get served with written discovery, complete it. And as an aside, it’s not your job to figure out what’s objectionable and what’s not in the discovery. Your job is to provide your attorney with everything and let them figure out what they’re going to object to.
A third thing that delays cases left and right, is that this is usually more of a problem with motions to modify, but not paying child support. Owing money on child support. You want to watch your case stall out and waste resources, getting hammered with a child support contempt that’s stuck on the rocket docket will screw you over faster than anything, because what will happen is you’re going to burn all your financial resources trying to fight a losing battle on the sixth floor of the courthouse in contempt proceedings instead of going after what you really want, which is your modification, your motion to enforce, things like that. You’re just going to burn through a ton of resources doing that for no reason. So guys, I know nobody likes paying child support. I get it. Pay. Don’t get jammed up on that, because that delays motions to modify and it can make them stall out if you run out of financial resources.
The fourth thing I see a lot of times that happens that can screw cases up is not taking care of court-mandated classes and videos. Watch your videos for the PPC guys and sign that attestation. Helping Children Cope With Divorce is the class you’re required to take for new divorces and new paternity. Again, not doing those things will stall your case out if you don’t watch the videos and do the attestation, you’re not going to get a temporary order setting. If you don’t do Helping Children Cope, the court’s not going to enter your final decree and that will stall your case out.
The last thing I’m going to talk about that also delays cases is either not showing up to stuff like your Planned Parenting conference or missing court dates or being late to court dates or just generally not cooperating with the process. If you miss a court date and it has to be passed, that’s going to delay your case. And I’m here to tell you now that in Tulsa County, you may not get another hearing for a month or more, depending on what the calendar looks like. You miss your PPC, you got to start all over again, and they only do them two times a month, so you have to schedule it for one of those days. And if you don’t do it, and you’re not scheduled, or you don’t show up, you’re going to have to wait till the next setting. So don’t do these things. Those are things that will stall your case out and make it so that you won’t get a result in a quick and reasonably timely manner.
If you have questions from an Oklahoma family law attorney about any of that, I would encourage you to go to Dads.Law and give me a shout. I’d be happy to help you out.
