Vraille Darkfang
First Post
There's a lot of backstory here (around 50 years worth), so I'll just state the case in brief (I'll leave out most of the sad details).
My wife's cousin needs to know where to go to get a lawyer about stoping the mother of 2 of his kids from taking said kids back). They currently have joint custody. He's getting ready to try for sole custody. She's now accusing him of keeping her from the kids unfairly & got her Welfare Lawyers (or some other free service) to send him a letter telling him to return the kids, he has 30 days to respond.
Thus he needs a lawyer. The ones he's talked to need 2,500 up front to even talk to him. He's meeting a lawyer who's a friend of a friend of his mothers on Monday. They have 0 cash, asked my wife & she's agreed to put up the money (which led to a big fight last night).
So, how can one get decent legal representation at a low rate. (He makes ok money, but is taking care of 5 kids, so they defiintly fit in the lower income brakets).
Some quick backstory.
Her cousin did a lot of stupid things. He did these stupid things repeatedly. One of these was to have 2 children with a crazy woman. This woman is insane, violent and just plain nasty. I won't go into all the details, but here a few of the best ones:
She's a Welfare Mom. That's her career. She's very good at it. She only works enough in a year to insure she gets her Welfare checks. She's been fired from every job she's had. Once she has enough work credits to get Welfare, she stops going to work. Her FOUR kids are her primary source of income (only 2 of them are his, the other 2 have different fathers).
She doesn't take care of the kids. Hell, when he first took them, she was glad as she didn't have to feed them anymore (she didn't buy them clothes or take them to the doctor). Since they had 'joint' custody, she stil got the welfare checks & his child support (no support from the father of the other kids, as 1 is unknown & the other in jail). But, then she got the notice about what would become of her money train when the kids were not her's anymore.
I could go on forever, but here are the key parts (they've documented all the crazy stuff this woman has done).
Despite having screwed his life up big-time. Repeatedly. Her cousin now has a good job, a stable home and is trying to do right by his kids (a rare thing nowdays).
The mom NEVER took the kids to the doctor (they hadn't had a single immunization when he finally took them).
The little girl pees herself. She's so afraid of the bathroom, just keeping the door open casues her to scream, cry & roll up into a little ball. She begs, cries, and pleads not to go back to 'Mommy's place.'
The mom's called the police, REPEATEDLY, saying he's kidnapped the kids & is beating them up. The police kicked down the door as they were sitting down to dinner. (They filed a false report against the mom).
The woman is worthless piece of trash. She's mistreating thhe kids. She's come close to having them taken away by child services a few times. In fact, if HIS life wasn't so screwed up in the past, he'd of had the kids by now.
I can go on & on & on about everything this woman has done (once she even told a judge to his face to "Go bleep your bleeping self" when he warned her not to make any more false claims in his court; this was when she claimed my wife's cousin punched his son & wanted him banned from seeing him. The judge found it hard to believe that a six foot, stongly built man could smack a kid really, really, really hard [her words], and barely leave a bruise. Then, when a nieghbor explained how the kids got in a fight earlier that day....)
They've done the right steps (finally). They have a complete record of all the crazy stuff she's done (an there is VOLUMES & VOLUMES of it). So, they'll get the kids this time (as he's finally got HIS life in order).
But lawyers must be involved. That means lawyer fees. My wife feels that family is important & is more than willinging to fit this first legal bill (He's said he'll pay us back & is willing to sign something, but I'n not a Notary). I'm worried about this turning in to a knock down-drag-out fight over these kids. Lawyer bills could sky-rocket & I'm not sure when my wife is going to realize that, sometimes, you have to let family lead (or ruin) their own lives & trying to help them clean it up can just drag you down.
This is going to be a case where there is no clear winner. The only obvious loser so far has been his kids, as they have a crappy mother & a father who's been having trouble getting it together).
Imagine walking onto a Jerry Springer set. You ever wonder where he gets people that crazy, stupid, ignorant & despicable? I no longer do. The sad fact is thier lives ARE Jerry Springer Episodes.
I'm worried my wife (in trying to help her cousin) is just going to flush a bunch of our money down the drain. (If past tendencies ring true). She's clear he's family. You help family. Even if he's been fired from 6 jobs, arrested multiple times, had 3 kids by 2 women (that he knows of), and basically FUBAR'D his life up to this point.
I can see where this might be going. It's not pretty. It'll just hurt my wife & leave us down 3,000 (or more) bucks. Maybe things will work out.
But maybe not, and I don't want us holding the bag.
To sum up. This Saturday, we are going up to my wife's cousin's to give him $3,000 dollars so he can see a lawyer (we don't know what KIND of laywer even), who is a friend of a friend of his mothers, so he can respond to the allegations from the mother of 2 of his children about why he's a fit father & that she's a crazy witch. A impartial obserer would call this a bad investment (I'm figuring 50-50 we ever get the money back, this drops like a rock if he gets any more legal fees).
For all I know, this lawyer is going to take the money, listen to them & say, "That's nice, but I'm not THAT kind of lawyer, you need to see Name, here's his card. Thanks for the cash. Bye now!"
This is going to get nasty. It's already been nasty since before the first kid was born. And I'm not fitting the bill for his complete crew upS (Empahsis on the 'S', Fool me once, shame on me, foll me 6, 7, 9 times, shame on....).
If I can direct him to cheap/free legal aid, this'll save (potentially) a nasty fight between me & my wife.
If you've ever seen more than 5 Jerry Springer shows, you know what's flying around. I want a source of cover.
Sorry about the length of this request for aid/rant, but it might help me feel better.
Nope, not really. There are some really young kids in a really nasty situation & it might get a whole lot worse before it gets better.
My wife's cousin needs to know where to go to get a lawyer about stoping the mother of 2 of his kids from taking said kids back). They currently have joint custody. He's getting ready to try for sole custody. She's now accusing him of keeping her from the kids unfairly & got her Welfare Lawyers (or some other free service) to send him a letter telling him to return the kids, he has 30 days to respond.
Thus he needs a lawyer. The ones he's talked to need 2,500 up front to even talk to him. He's meeting a lawyer who's a friend of a friend of his mothers on Monday. They have 0 cash, asked my wife & she's agreed to put up the money (which led to a big fight last night).
So, how can one get decent legal representation at a low rate. (He makes ok money, but is taking care of 5 kids, so they defiintly fit in the lower income brakets).
Some quick backstory.
Her cousin did a lot of stupid things. He did these stupid things repeatedly. One of these was to have 2 children with a crazy woman. This woman is insane, violent and just plain nasty. I won't go into all the details, but here a few of the best ones:
She's a Welfare Mom. That's her career. She's very good at it. She only works enough in a year to insure she gets her Welfare checks. She's been fired from every job she's had. Once she has enough work credits to get Welfare, she stops going to work. Her FOUR kids are her primary source of income (only 2 of them are his, the other 2 have different fathers).
She doesn't take care of the kids. Hell, when he first took them, she was glad as she didn't have to feed them anymore (she didn't buy them clothes or take them to the doctor). Since they had 'joint' custody, she stil got the welfare checks & his child support (no support from the father of the other kids, as 1 is unknown & the other in jail). But, then she got the notice about what would become of her money train when the kids were not her's anymore.
I could go on forever, but here are the key parts (they've documented all the crazy stuff this woman has done).
Despite having screwed his life up big-time. Repeatedly. Her cousin now has a good job, a stable home and is trying to do right by his kids (a rare thing nowdays).
The mom NEVER took the kids to the doctor (they hadn't had a single immunization when he finally took them).
The little girl pees herself. She's so afraid of the bathroom, just keeping the door open casues her to scream, cry & roll up into a little ball. She begs, cries, and pleads not to go back to 'Mommy's place.'
The mom's called the police, REPEATEDLY, saying he's kidnapped the kids & is beating them up. The police kicked down the door as they were sitting down to dinner. (They filed a false report against the mom).
The woman is worthless piece of trash. She's mistreating thhe kids. She's come close to having them taken away by child services a few times. In fact, if HIS life wasn't so screwed up in the past, he'd of had the kids by now.
I can go on & on & on about everything this woman has done (once she even told a judge to his face to "Go bleep your bleeping self" when he warned her not to make any more false claims in his court; this was when she claimed my wife's cousin punched his son & wanted him banned from seeing him. The judge found it hard to believe that a six foot, stongly built man could smack a kid really, really, really hard [her words], and barely leave a bruise. Then, when a nieghbor explained how the kids got in a fight earlier that day....)
They've done the right steps (finally). They have a complete record of all the crazy stuff she's done (an there is VOLUMES & VOLUMES of it). So, they'll get the kids this time (as he's finally got HIS life in order).
But lawyers must be involved. That means lawyer fees. My wife feels that family is important & is more than willinging to fit this first legal bill (He's said he'll pay us back & is willing to sign something, but I'n not a Notary). I'm worried about this turning in to a knock down-drag-out fight over these kids. Lawyer bills could sky-rocket & I'm not sure when my wife is going to realize that, sometimes, you have to let family lead (or ruin) their own lives & trying to help them clean it up can just drag you down.
This is going to be a case where there is no clear winner. The only obvious loser so far has been his kids, as they have a crappy mother & a father who's been having trouble getting it together).
Imagine walking onto a Jerry Springer set. You ever wonder where he gets people that crazy, stupid, ignorant & despicable? I no longer do. The sad fact is thier lives ARE Jerry Springer Episodes.
I'm worried my wife (in trying to help her cousin) is just going to flush a bunch of our money down the drain. (If past tendencies ring true). She's clear he's family. You help family. Even if he's been fired from 6 jobs, arrested multiple times, had 3 kids by 2 women (that he knows of), and basically FUBAR'D his life up to this point.
I can see where this might be going. It's not pretty. It'll just hurt my wife & leave us down 3,000 (or more) bucks. Maybe things will work out.
But maybe not, and I don't want us holding the bag.
To sum up. This Saturday, we are going up to my wife's cousin's to give him $3,000 dollars so he can see a lawyer (we don't know what KIND of laywer even), who is a friend of a friend of his mothers, so he can respond to the allegations from the mother of 2 of his children about why he's a fit father & that she's a crazy witch. A impartial obserer would call this a bad investment (I'm figuring 50-50 we ever get the money back, this drops like a rock if he gets any more legal fees).
For all I know, this lawyer is going to take the money, listen to them & say, "That's nice, but I'm not THAT kind of lawyer, you need to see Name, here's his card. Thanks for the cash. Bye now!"
This is going to get nasty. It's already been nasty since before the first kid was born. And I'm not fitting the bill for his complete crew upS (Empahsis on the 'S', Fool me once, shame on me, foll me 6, 7, 9 times, shame on....).
If I can direct him to cheap/free legal aid, this'll save (potentially) a nasty fight between me & my wife.
If you've ever seen more than 5 Jerry Springer shows, you know what's flying around. I want a source of cover.
Sorry about the length of this request for aid/rant, but it might help me feel better.
Nope, not really. There are some really young kids in a really nasty situation & it might get a whole lot worse before it gets better.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
