My name is David. I have three boys. Oldest 16 lives with me. Two younger boys 8,12 live with there mother. The 12 year old wanted to come live with me. I made sure that he was sure before i started into this.
I was told you get lawyer & pay $500 they fill papper work out. My 12 year sign's papper. Worse case we go before judge & he talks to son about where & why he wants to live with dad. I was told by lawyer. That the judge almost always sides with child even if the living conditions or parent is not very good (This was just an example). We both keep good house holds. Ex did not agree to son coming to live with me. So my lawyer submits to court my son wants to come live with me & gets a notice to ex. She gets lawyer he comes back with 1. Written Interrogatories. 2. Rule 194 Requests for Disclosure. 3. Request for Prouction & Inspection. 4. Preparation for Social Study. Next thing i know my lawyer wants $8,000. I told ex this was never about a fight or trying to prove her bad mother ot child support. All i wanted was to give my son what he wanted. She not bad mother. Anyway i told her i'm not spending that kind of money & i didn't want her to pay either. I dropped the case & she followed.

Now i'm getting hit with modification for increase child support. We have been divorced for a little over two years. The increase is only $ 70 a month & that is do to a profit sharing check witch only comes along once every five years or so.

First question did my lawyer handle the child custody part ok ? I wish i would of known about the four things i noted above. I'm going to start this over & do it myself with help from Father for equal rights.
Second question. I asked my lawyer about the support increase mod.. I told her it has not been three years & $70 is not 20% increase. There is no major change in custody. My lawyer stated that since we started the child custdy battle that it gave her the ok to do support mod... Does this sound right ?

Sorry for long msg,
Thanks for your time,
David

My name is David. I have three boys. Oldest 16 lives with me. Two younger boys 8,12 live with there mother. The 12 year old wanted to come live with me. I made sure that he was sure before i started into this.
I was told you get lawyer & pay $500 they fill papper work out. My 12 year sign's papper. Worse case we go before judge & he talks to son about where & why he wants to live with dad. I was told by lawyer. That the judge almost always sides with child even if the living conditions or parent is not very good (This was just an example). We both keep good house holds. Ex did not agree to son coming to live with me. So my lawyer submits to court my son wants to come live with me & gets a notice to ex. She gets lawyer he comes back with 1. Written Interrogatories. 2. Rule 194 Requests for Disclosure. 3. Request for Prouction & Inspection. 4. Preparation for Social Study. Next thing i know my lawyer wants $8,000. I told ex this was never about a fight or trying to prove her bad mother ot child support. All i wanted was to give my son what he wanted. She not bad mother. Anyway i told her i'm not spending that kind of money & i didn't want her to pay either. I dropped the case & she followed.

Now i'm getting hit with modification for increase child support. We have been divorced for a little over two years. The increase is only $ 70 a month & that is do to a profit sharing check witch only comes along once every five years or so.

First question did my lawyer handle the child custody part ok ? I wish i would of known about the four things i noted above. I'm going to start this over & do it myself with help from Father for equal rights.
Second question. I asked my lawyer about the support increase mod.. I told her it has not been three years & $70 is not 20% increase. There is no major change in custody. My lawyer stated that since we started the child custdy battle that it gave her the ok to do support mod... Does this sound right ?

Sorry for long msg,
Thanks for your time,
David

Reply to question # 1- Yes, it sounds like the lawyer handled the custody case well. The original fee quoted was probably assuming that the change in custody was going to be uncontested. Then when it was contested along with discovery requests (which means more work for lawyer) the fee had to be increased.

Reply to question # 2- What the attorney said doesn't sound right. First, the custody modification was VOLUNTARILY dismissed by BOTH parties, so it cannot be used as "reason" to modify CS. A significant change in circumstance, which would result in a 20% increase or decrease can be used as a basis for a modification, but this does not appear to be the case. You might want to consult with another attorney for a second opinion about the CS modification.
Xena :)