Background:
My wife is attempting to get child support from her ex and we're having trouble. The child is 10 years old and my wife has been basically bullied the last 10 years. He has threatened her not to enforce child support or he'll basically keep her in court forever. She's been stuck with medical bills exceeding $60k and lawyer fees exceeding 30k since her daughter was born. As a result, she has filed bankruptsy..etc. He's a lawyer and has had a pretty good strategy of keeping her in court forever and sucking her pockets dry until she get's emotionally and financially drained and withdrawls. He's filed over 177 motions since the child has been born.

Issue:
Anyway, that's just the background. Now to the issue. In the first hearing to get the support amount, he refused to provide income and the courts had to make an arbitrairy determination of how much he made based on what he made when he worked for the county as a case worker (which he knew they would do). In effect, it's working to his great advantage to be uncooperative. We know it's way off but all of his assets (including his chain restaurant business, his $400k house, and (2) $40k cars are in his wife's name. He hasn't filed any income taxes because he's requested several extentions. Now we're hearing that there's probably nothing we can do to revise the amount unless we can prove his income but we can't.

Question:
What's the law on this sort of thing? It's obvious that he's purposely putting his assets in his wife's name and abusing the loopholes in order to be a deadbeat! This is worse than a regular deadbeat dad in my opinion and his license should be revoked. What would you do? Should we go to the IRS and the BAR association to file a complaint? Also, is there a law out there that protects against putting all of your assets into your wife's name or forces to use combined income based on these circumstances?

- X

Background:
My wife is attempting to get child support from her ex and we're having trouble. The child is 10 years old and my wife has been basically bullied the last 10 years. He has threatened her not to enforce child support or he'll basically keep her in court forever. She's been stuck with medical bills exceeding $60k and lawyer fees exceeding 30k since her daughter was born. As a result, she has filed bankruptsy..etc. He's a lawyer and has had a pretty good strategy of keeping her in court forever and sucking her pockets dry until she get's emotionally and financially drained and withdrawls. He's filed over 177 motions since the child has been born.

Issue:
Anyway, that's just the background. Now to the issue. In the first hearing to get the support amount, he refused to provide income and the courts had to make an arbitrairy determination of how much he made based on what he made when he worked for the county as a case worker (which he knew they would do). In effect, it's working to his great advantage to be uncooperative. We know it's way off but all of his assets (including his chain restaurant business, his $400k house, and (2) $40k cars are in his wife's name. He hasn't filed any income taxes because he's requested several extentions. Now we're hearing that there's probably nothing we can do to revise the amount unless we can prove his income but we can't.

Question:
What's the law on this sort of thing? It's obvious that he's purposely putting his assets in his wife's name and abusing the loopholes in order to be a deadbeat! This is worse than a regular deadbeat dad in my opinion and his license should be revoked. What would you do? Should we go to the IRS and the BAR association to file a complaint? Also, is there a law out there that protects against putting all of your assets into your wife's name or forces to use combined income based on these circumstances?

- X I would hire a private detective to find out all of this information, assets would have to be in his name first before he puts them in her name. One of the things that would help determine what his income would be, would be an application for a loan, no one lies on that if they want the loan to be approved. See if someone can find out for the house or car loan, what was put down as his income, and bring that to court! A private detective may be able to find out all of this.

Thanks for the help. What did you think about the ethics? Do you consider his actions an enforcable code of ethics violation for Michigan? I'm just thinking that reporting him to the Bar association is the only way he's going to stop with non-complying. Also, since the first ruling back in June, he's paid zero child support. Doesn't he have to pay? I don't understand all the loopholes that he's getting away with.

IF the assets were never in his name and only in his wifes, you would have a hard time proving it.
You should contact the IRS about tax evasion and the bar assn to report his lawyer.
You should try to get as much info as you can before you consult a private detective. It's amazing what you can get online---property records, tax for the county and the city records, business liscences(whos name they're in) and that is free. You can even pay to have the title record for someone elses vehicle checked along with driving historys.
You may need to take all of the paperwork all the motions etc and have it reviewed.
WHY is a Judge letting more than 100 motions be filed in a simple divorce/custody/child support case??? That judge needs to be looked at!!!
A judge can say "NO More!" and why the judge has not is beyond me.... Some people have friends in high places. See if you can ask for a judicial review of some kind!

Thanks for you reply. I'm glad that you ask and yes he does have friends in high places. Specifically, we're in this mess probably because he worked for the same county. We can't move it and a judge won't step down. My wife's attorney tried once and it backfired. it completely insulted the judge. I thought that the mere appearance of a conflict of interest was only necessary to request such a thing?

He was a divergence case worker and did supervised visitation on the side. Now he has his own private practice. I can think of a specific case about 4 years ago...

In this case, the conciliator decided in our favor then he appealed to a mediator which happened to be his former supervisor! Then when we appealed, the judge kept the previous order (which he's known for). He came out of the judge's chambers before the judge gave the final word smiling and he wasn't even representing himself. Then the judge goes and makes an order that goes against state statue (100 mile radius)and says that we can't move outside the tri-county area. Our lawyer was so discusted that he didn't even send us a single bill after we paid the retainer.

The last time he didn't pay his child support, they didn't arrest him because he knew the person that was in charge of that also. Someone just notified him and he took care of it before it got messy.

This time we're requesting to move 30 miles away which happens to be 8 miles over the tri-county border. We lost and now we're in court for that also! It's going to be dragged out for probably another year.

He's also filed an exparte about a month ago for absolutely no reason. It was denied but it's the point that it's completely unfounded. My wife and him attend counseling together and he hasn't brought anything up that would warrant something like that and he still hasn't since he filed the motion. anyway that's my vent. Believe it or not, I could just keep going. It's unreal.

I'm not letting my wife get bullied any more. But I have to admit, I'm sceptical until something actually happens because of what's happened so far. This has completely changed my view of the judicial system.

given the sheer number of motions he has filed- it might be a good shot for your wife if she requested he pay her attorney fees