Sept. 11, my court date21:43 Sep 22 2008
Times Read: 862
I showed up at the lawyer's office at 9 am, as I had originally scheduled my appointment before they moved my court time from 9:30 to 1:30. I was shown into my lawyer's office, and we commenced to talk.
I had brought EVERYTHING I had, copies of paperwork, emails, etc. just in case...
Damn good thing too....
"When did THIS happen? Why didn't I know about this? Do we have a copy of this in your file?"
*sigh*
I had originally talked to another partner when I first retained this firm's services in this matter, and HE had pooh pooh'ed all my stuff
"we don't need that, it won't get that bad....."
Guess I showed them, hunh...
After about an hour of talking about nonsense shit, I told my lawyer that I was going to take my friend to lunch (this would be Chris, who steadfastly refused to accompany me to court), and we would meet him at the courthouse at 1:15. In the PARKING LOT. There was no way IN HELL I was going to go into that place alone, and run the risk of running into the monster that awaited me there.
You laugh...I hate the thought of having to be around this woman ever, If she is being this way to me, what in the name of GOD was she doing to Daddy when he was sick?
So, lunch we go- one of my favorite spots in Thomasville, the Farmer's Market, and they even had my favorite on the buffet- fried chicken livers and mac and cheese- from scratch.
It all tasted like dirt to me.
So back we go to the courthouse, where we waited for my lawyer to show up. When he did, I left Chris in the car, still refusing to set foot in the courthouse (God knows why, he wouldn't give me a satisfactory answer) and off we went.
We met my witness, a CPA from Bainbridge, a very competent and knowledgable man who assured me he had everythig he needed, with hard copies, and we stepped off into a side room to discuss it as the case in front of us was running 30 minutes behind.
Mr. Burke showed me his paperwork, told me what it all meant, and explained how he was going to present it. He was precise, succinct, and I felt better about this mess in 10 minutes of talking to him than I had in 3 YEARS of talking to my lawyers. Not a glowing endorsement for them I must say, but I had been assured that by the end of this case, I would be DONE once and for all, one way or the other. That was what was going to get me through this.
The clerk called us in when it was our turn, and as we walked into the courtroom, I noticed that Ms. Sue and her lawyer were already in there. HER lawyer stood up, walked to MY lawyer, and stated that he thought it would be a good idea if they "kept the two of them gals apart, as it would do no good if we talked to each other"
duh, mister....took you a while didn't it...course, he was the same guy who told MY lawyer that Ms. Sue was CERTIFIABLY CRAZY for what she was doing.
Score one for the good guys, I guess..
The lawyers each presented their opening statements. They requested that HER CPA be allowed to testify first, which we agreed to. The JUDGE then stated that he was of the opinion that this matter would be better suited going to a MEDIATOR than to court, because it was going to be final whatever he decided, and we might want to sit down and discuss this with a mediator before taking such a drastic step....
Now I ASK you....what the FUCK could we possibly achieve in 15-30 minutes with a mediator that we haven't been able to accomplish in FOUR YEARS both without and with lawyers???
Not a fucking thing. But lo and behold, Ms. Sue and her pet lawyer went scampering out to the hall to "discuss this". Of course she promptly came back and stated she wanted a trial.
Duh...she is after all the one who filed the fucking thing in the FIRST place...
So here.....we......go.......
Her CPA testified. There is an IRS formula for this type of thing. It is very precise. A + B + C = C. No ifs and or buts. It was created for this very thing, so that judges wouldn't have to guess and estimate or round off numbers or anything.
Her age
The rate for the chosen month (at this point, we had picked the month that the house was converted to cash, April)
the amount of money in question.
Seems fairly straight forward doesn't it...
*sigh*
Her lawyer tried to argue that the JUDGE should have a guess at what number should be used, because obviously he would be better at this than IRS experts who had been doing this for YEARS....
Obviously my lawyer said that would defeat the purpose of having the damn formula in the first place.
Then MY CPA took the stand. Needless to say, he had all the facts, figures and percentages for the entire YEAR, plus all the facts to back up his formula, which both CPA's had stipulated to in the first place, and he very deftly covered all his bases. He may have been short, but by GOD he knew his shizzle. I was starting to see a glimmer of light at this end of this very long rocky tunnel.....
I should have remembered Murphy's law...
Sometimes the light at the end of a tunnel is an oncoming train...
The judge would say something that made me giddy with relief, and in the next breath, seem to take her side. I got seasick watching him go back and forth.
Then they called Ms. Sue to testify. She stated she had paid off the home equity loan, because someone had to, and I flat out refused. Which was a lie, and my lawyer called her on it. She admitted that I had offered to pay half, after she let my brother and his third get gone before she could take that from him.
She testified that she had sold daddy's brand new car, but that she had used that to pay for the funeral...again, my lawyer asked her if I had offered to pay for any of THAT, and she grudgingly admitted I had.
She FINALLY owned up to the fact that she had sold my stuff that Daddy had left me, but stated it wasn't more than a couple thousand dollars worth, just junk. MY lawyer asked her point blank wasn't it more like $6,000??? And wasn't it actually an auction of several antique pieces that were sold???? And she said yes, if I remembered it that way, it may have been...
*sigh*
After all this, (no, I didn't have to testify, thank God) The judge wanted to know EXACTLY how much was in the account as far as the sum total of the money was concerned. It would have taken TWO SECONDS to find this out, and we could have been through....
But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The judge looks at the lawyers, and says " I am giving you boys 20 business days to clarify some of the testimony presented here today, including getting me the total of the amount in said bank account. Court dismissed"
And there......I....sat.......
After promising me faithfully that this would only take one day of my life, my lawyer just looked at me and said "ready to go?"
WTF?????
One day in court....That is what he said. I postponed getting a job, because one day in court was a lot more than just one day for me. I had told him of this, way back when. Oh it won't take that long"
So I got a job...
Now I have had to:
A) Take a week off during the busiest part of the season.
B) spend over $1,000 which we didn't have to throw around after not getting a refund on my money from the NOLA meet and Scott still being laid off. Spent on a plane ticket, mostly.
C) spent the money to pay them their most recent bill of $575 while I was there, only to get home and find ANOTHER bill for $585 at the house.
D) had to fly home in the aftermath of Ike making landfall, which screwed EVERY flight across the board for EVERYBODY all the way down the line....causing me to get to Vancouver at 11 PM instead of 5:30 Saturday like I was supposed to. And my luggage got there at 1 AM Monday after I got home from WORK.
Total of this fiasco? 5 days out of town, $900 for a plane ticket, $575 to the lawyer, and $200 in gas and food....
And what did I get out of it?
Absolutely FUCKING nothing.....
When I got home, and had a few minutes to catch my breath (I worked the next night, then WENT to work on Monday only to discover that I had the night off) I sent an email to my lawyer, stating that while in the past I was willing to let certain things slide as this was strictly a business proposition, and I didn't want to muddy the waters any, it had since gone past this with this trip. That I wanted him to be FULLY aware, and to make the JUDGE also FULLY aware of just how much this had cost me, financially, emotionally and physically, and that I wanted her held accountable, once and for all...that I didn't expect a response form him, only ACTION on this matter.
I didn't get an answer- didn't expect one either.
I am now in day 7 of waiting.....and waiting..... and waiting......
AND...on top of everything else, after SWEARING he would keep her away from me....the lawyers had to go back to the court reporter to drop off paperwork just as we were leaving, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see her making a bee line for me, like a deranged pit bull.....
She got withion inches of me, opened her mouth...
And I held up one finger....just one...right in front of her face.
I didn't look at her
I didn't speak to her
I didn't allow her to speak....
She turned on one heel and walked away....
So help me, my curiosity was killing me, because I was DYING to know what in the WORLD she could possibly have to say to me after all this shit she had put me through. But I knew, as surely as I know my own name, that one or the other would have come out of her mouth"
"What would your daddy think about what you are putting me through?"
"If I do ________, and you get ________, I want to see Connor......."
There would have been no coming home
There would have been no happy reunion in the airport
There would have been no waiting for an end to this.
There would have been my ass in jail, without even the little hope I have now...
I would have slapped her clean across the court room...
I am looking forward to actually getting a resolution to this, and then informing her that she sold her rights to her grandson....
I only wish I could have done it in person.
I still may....because there is always the possiblity that I may have to go back, and do this ALL OVER AGAIN....
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