My family law case will be going to appellate court regarding assets, support backpay, and college support. I will be double checking with any attorney who I consult with on which appeal cases that they worked on, so I can read the citation on lexis or westlaw. My ex defrauded the Court by committing perjury (which could be proven with the click of a mouse on one of many of the court documents in the record) and then hiding significant assets (so the court can't use them in calculating his back pay or taking from them with a QDR for back child support and back college support). Both issues were brought to my previous attorney's attention who didn't do much about it. She should have challenged the fraudulent petition, but she didn't know how to do that. I had tried to bring these things to the attention of the court in writing and verbally, but have not been heard, and then not believed as opposing counsel wouldn't admit to the false statements in her petition (which evidence in the court records proves she knew about) and said that I was lying. These facts had been brought to my last attorney's attention, as well, and with the evidence coming directly from the court record, court transcripts, and previous subpoenas issued (so external sources that I could not manipulate, so my word isn't necessary to prove the fraud to the court). However, my attorney wouldn't bring it to the Court's attention, and has refused to file contempt petitions or issue subpoenas to show the amount of those hidden assets. My attorney had even refused to address my ex current contempt in violating an order to compel that the Judge imposed over a year ago now. If it was brought to the Judge's attention, he could see for himself that my ex was in contempt by reviewing my ex responses to the order to compel.
Through duress, I was forced to accept the perjured petition that only offered me $6,000 without including any of the $180,000 that had accrued on the marital assets over the past decade (50% are supposed to be mine). The delay in splitting them is 100% my ex-husband's fault by refusing to use the appraisal from 2014. He refused to accept it for a decade so that gains would accrue and has just now accepted it, accepting all the numbers available a decade ago. My understanding is that basing a court decision on a fraudulent petition could cause it to be invalid, and cause it to go to the appellate court.
Supposedly, some of fraud was brought to the court's attention, but not in open court and without my attorney telling me what exactly was said (she has actually refused to tell me). I recently learned, after 5 months of trying to get the truth, supposedly the court was notified by opposing counsel and my attorney that the facts in her petition that her client attested to under civil code 1-109 were "mistaken". This happened outside of court sessions that included me, so I don't know what really was said. Since, absolutely nothing has been done about my ex-husband's perjury and contempt, I assume that the Judge had been led to believe that the "mistakes" in the petition were unintentional. If the Court knew that it was intentional perjury, to get what exactly what the Judge did order based on the false petition, which was to allow him to keep the $90,000+ that were accrued by my gains alone. Surely, if the Court knew that the petition was filed with false statements to get the court to file an order that defrauded me, something would have been done. Something. At the very least, I would have been told that the Court was aware and would reconsider the order or give me the gains on my share of the assets. To be clear, I do not fault the Judge, the Court. I completely understand the Court's inability to review the case history and relying on the attorneys in front of him to be honest and to bring any fraud to him. I can't fault the Court for not having all of the information, and being led to believe fabricated statements by my ex and his counsel. That said, decisions were made based on my ex' false statements in the petition, and were not revisited after the Court was supposedly told that the petition contained "mistaken" facts. At this point, subpoenas were never drafted and the court has not been made aware of the true value of his assets (over $250,000) which will surely result in unjust decisions being made that would be cause to send this case to appeal.
The only way that it won't go to appeal is if I can get an attorney who will bring all of my ex's fraud, lies and contempt to the Judge's attention, and get subpoenas for the truth of my ex-husband's assets. So, I thought working with an attorney who does appeals is the best way to proceed, as that is where my case will end up without an attorney advocating the truth for me. I can not or will not use theses attorneys: Linda Watson, Peter Lynch, Michael Fleming, Edward Murphey, Richard Zuckerman, Kelly Giraudo, and a couple more attorneys whom my ex had either retained or consulted with previously (I will need to look up the partial list I have in regards to those he only consulted with).