The personal space of EmilyRose

I look into this face I no longer recognize. 

Four years should not ravage anyone this way.

I have to start at the end.  The beginning will just confuse you.  It is dark.

The law here is neither just nor fair.  It seems to go to the highest bidder.  Do not be poor and seek justice.   

My lawyer threatened that if I did not come up with twelve thousand dollars for him, he would not waste his time defending my divorce case.  He also told me that if I pushed to get a decision to save my house from foreclosure the decision would be against me.

He didn’t.  It was.

In Pennsylvania an attorney is appointed as Master to hear matters of support.  The master heard my husband testify to spending $65,000 though his tax return stated that he only had $20,000 in income.  He testified that his business expenses included his groceries, utility bills he paid on my house, his personal vehicle, and the room he lived in at his father’s house.  He never counted in normal living expenses or the down payment, ($15,000), on his new house or the money he used to furnish it.  There was also all the new equipment he bought to run sound, the new industrial washer and dryer, just to name a few of his purchases.  His accountant testified that he got all his figures from my husband without any verification from bank statements.

When we left the hearing, my attorney shook his head and told me that he couldn’t believe my husband’s attorney let him testify to committing tax fraud or perjure himself like that.

It took months for the decision.

The Master set my husbands income at $45,000. and gave him a credit of $703. per month for the last two and half years for mortgage payments on our home which had been part of the child support he was paying.  That wiped out any support I was getting last November.  I then owed him money.

I begged for my attorney to file an exception to the Master’s decision.  How could she set his income $20,000 below what he had admitted to spending without evening considering the tens of thousands of dollars on his house? the furnishings? his basic living expenses?  his new toys?

He testified to working five sometimes six days a week and making $50 an hour and that was without what he made on the people that worked for him or the profit on the job overall.

How could this be?

Weeks later, after borrowing over $500 for the transcript, 700 pages of Dave lying, the Exceptions were filed and I waited for the Judge to rule.  It took months and the house was already going into foreclosure.  Somehow Dave knew 90 days before that day in November that he would no longer have to pay that mortgage.

The Judge could decide or remand it back to the Master and I prayed for a decision.  He remanded it back to the Master but agreed that Dave was not honest and had to be making more than $45,000.  He ordered that the Master hold hearings to gain evidence of Dave’s true earnings and legitimate business expenses and file a recommendation within 90 days.

Another 90 days.  I was hanging on by my teeth.  The house was going for Sheriff’s sale on October 7^th but that was 8/23 so it should be fine.  A positive decision would mean a correction and my ability to pay them back, save our home, pay the bills that had piled up.  I promised my son that it would be alright.

The hearing date was set for 8/20.  I held my breath.  One week before the court date, I received a letter telling me that the Master had rescheduled it until October 20^th, thirteen days after the Sheriff’s sale.

I ran to the lawyers office and he sneered at me, “I can’t help the court’s schedule, and walked away.”  His assistant listened to me.  I explained that there was a court order that said a decision had to be made by August 23^rd.  I told her about the Sheriff’s sale and she rescheduled the hearing for 8/29.

I gathered my evidence.  I had 2004 and 2005 contracts that showed Dave was only claiming the jobs that paid him by check.  I e-mailed my lawyer asking that he subpoena Dave’s tax returns in their entirety for those years so that the 1099’s were included.  It would prove that he was leaving out over $60,000 worth of income.  I told him if he subpoenaed his commercial insurance company for his certificates it would list all his commercial jobs and the amounts he was paid for them.

The day before the hearing I took half a day from work to prepare myself, my paperwork.  At 2:30 the phone rang.  It was Michelle, my attorney’s assistant.  The hearing was canceled for good, this time.  My attorney canceled it.  He spoke with the Master and told her that Dave would just lie so why waste both their time.  She rubber stamped the same decision she had made last November citing that she had no evidence to change it.

He warned me that with no money he would not defend me.  He warned me that if I tried to save my home by asking for the Master to make a decision she would do just that.

Thing is, they are in defiance of a court order with no money for a new attorney, but working so unable to go to legal aid.

Scranton justice.