Avoiding Common Mistakes That Delay Oklahoma Family Court Cases.
Avoiding Common Mistakes That Delay Court Cases
So today I want to talk about five things you may be doing that are delaying your case. My name is Brian L. Jackson, I’m a Tulsa father’s rights attorney here with Dads.Law and I want to talk about some common things that I see dads doing that makes their custody cases take longer than they need to.
First thing I see, and this is one of the biggest arguments I have with people, is not providing your financials. What I mean by that is, one of the rules, and it is statutory and it’s a local rule in Tulsa County, you are required to turn over your proof of income and your history of income. And what that looks like is, last five paychecks, or actually it’s supposed to be six months worth of pay stubs, but at least through last five. Six months worth of bank records. Your last year’s tax return. Those three things must be provided. Now you’re entitled to get those from her too. This is a frequent place where a lot of guys don’t want to turn that information over because they feel like she’s picking their pockets, or turning them upside down and shaking out every last penny. And I understand the sentiment, but I’m here to tell you guys, you have to provide those documents if you want to move your case. In a divorce, or a new divorce or a new paternity, without those documents you can’t have a temporary murder hearing. You want to get in the door and see your kid because she’s been withholding. That is a necessary condition to get that done. And there is no avoiding it, there’s no exception, period. So the best way to avoid that problem is provide that to your lawyer the day you hire them. Before they file anything, you give that to them.
Second thing, not complying with discovery. This is another, building on the first topic, this is another area I see cases get delayed all the time. And it’s also a way that guys waste a lot of money dicking around, and I mean legitimately dicking around. If you get written discovery, answer it fully. If there’s something that your attorney believes is objectionable, let them make that call. You provide whatever that paper calls for. That argument without delay, because the more you jerk around with that, the more you waste time, you spend money, and it delays your case. And it could result in costing you additional funds, not only paid to your attorney, but potentially to her attorney if it goes that far. So don’t jerk around with responding to discovery. Do it timely, do it as fast as you possibly can, because that will prevent your case from getting stalled.
Why Complying with Discovery is Important
Third thing I see a lot of that delays cases is not signing papers, not responding timely when you’re sent pleadings to sign, to review and sign. If we send you something and say, hey, read this and sign it, we need it back. Because if we don’t have it back, we can’t do nothing. We need it back immediately. So if there’s a problem, if there’s a question, a concern, that’s fine, but you don’t want to waste a lot of time not complying, not signing things, because it delays the case.
The last thing I can tell you that I see that makes cases drag on forever and ever and ever is if you don’t respond promptly to other contacts, questions, whatever, to your attorney. If you stop returning calls, you change your phone number, don’t tell us, that kind of thing. If we don’t hear from you, your case has a way of getting back-burnered, because most of us are pretty damn busy. And it’s not that we don’t care about your case, it’s more or less that if a client communicates to us that they are not taking the case as seriously as the attorney, then the attorney will typically, that’ll become a lower priority than another case with someone who’s moving behind. And that kind of goes along with the other things I talked about earlier about signing things, returning things, providing documentation that’s asked for, things like that, is that will result in your case being delayed. And if you don’t want it delayed, then you need to be prepared. Those are all things that are easy to avoid that can help you move your case along faster.
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A couple of other things that I would say are honorable mentions that result in delays for stupid reasons is wanting to fight over things that don’t matter, which, you know, for instance, okay, she cheated on you. Here’s the newsflash. In most contexts in family law, modern family law jurisprudence, judges don’t care. They don’t care. It’s not going to seriously impact custody, it’s not going to impact property division, it’s not going to impact whether or not there’s going to be spousal support. And trying to make that argument is a waste of time, money, and resources, and it’s just going to drag your case out while your attorney wastes time with it.
The only time it really becomes relevant is if you’re talking about a situation where she’s brought somebody who is objectively unsuitable around the children, and that’s a different situation. I think also wanting to, trying to get out of following the procedure and shortcut it frequently results in delays instead of shortcuts. And what I mean by that is other than discovery, things like, well, I don’t really want to do this PPC hearing, or I don’t really want to show up to this, or I don’t really want to show up to that, or I don’t want to do my parenting class, or those things all result in delays. There are very specific steps involved with getting to each point on the, you know, each stop on the train, so to speak, with family court. You want a temporary order? You have to go to the PPC. You have to watch the videos associated with the PPC.
You have to sign the attestation. You have to turn over your proof of income. Those things must happen before you get to actually put on a temporary order hearing, period. And there’s pretty much no exception to that rule. So, you know, you decide to drag your feet and not do what you’re supposed to do, all that does is delay the process. You know, if you’re court-ordered to pay, you know, like, say the court appoints a GAL, court-ordered to pay a GAL, pay the GAL, because if you don’t, it’s just going to delay the process. That’s, you know, not complying with things is another example of things that delay the process.
If you have questions about that or you’re dealing with a situation where you need help in a family court case, one place you can get help is at Dad.Law, where fathers are not disposable.
