Motion within a motion

Months back I filed a motion for shared custody. This motion was adjourned for a date in January. The problem is, is that my ex still wasn't giving me my full weekend access. I attempted to have the judge clarify my original order that stated I have two full weekends a month. He stated that this motion was not the time or place to hear any submissions and that there was an order in place and if the respondent chose not to abide by it then I had other recourse.

After leaving that court room I stated to my ex that I would pick up my kids on Friday. She said only if you have them back Saturday morning. I said no, I have full weekend access, that includes overnights, Friday to Sunday. She said then don't bother even picking them up your not getting them. It was at that point I went directly down to the court clerks and attempted to get an emergency motion form. The clerk at this time said unless the kids well being was in danger then she could not give me an emergency form. I asked what form I required, after describing the situation. She then gave me an urgent motion form. I filled this out and to make a long story short the following week we had a motion for clarification of my original access order. The Judge granted my ex an adjournment to prepare any submissions for this urgent motion and the motion was adjourned for over a month, however, the Judge actually made a temporary order to clarify my original order for access during this time until the next hearing date. He granted me three weekends that included overnights, and three days during the week.

When the motion/hearing date for clarification arrived I assumed that I would only be speaking on the motion, my motion for clarification. This Judge was a complete ASS. I simply stated what I was asking for, simple clarification of an order that already existed but was vague in terms of specific dates and times. Rather than simply specifying exact dates and times, he began to make faces of disgust when I made my submissions, indicating to me that he thought that my motion was ridiculous. This thought of mine was confirmed when he stated that my motion did not belong here and should not have been allowed. I stated that I explained my situation to the clerk and that she gave me the appropriate forms. He then allowed my exes lawyer make her submissions and her submissions were not even on point. She began huffing and puffing about the safety of the children and that this was an attempt by me to get more time with my girls and not waiting for the shared custody hearing in the new year. I tried to object but was put in my place by the judge telling me not to interrupt and to allow the respondents lawyer to continue.

I can assure you this was not an attempt to get more time with my kids, it was an attempt to get specific times and dates that add up to the time I had already been granted five years ago. Needless to say it was downhill from there. The judge then allowed her to make submissions on having a Child Custody/Access assessment done. I was a bit taken aback. I mean how does a motion for clarification of an already existing order get to submissions on a custody access assessment. Well it did and the judge, without even allowing me submissions on this granted the respondents lawyer and ordered that the forms for this assessment be completed by December 22. He also stated that the cost be shared by both parties. Well that cost is $3000. I attempted to make my objections known. Its not that I objected to the assessment but I did object to the fact that I had to pay half without even making any submissions. The fact of the matter is, is that I am not working at the moment and told him this, he wouldn't listen but stated that perhaps my shared custody motion should be withdrawn if I wasn't serious about it. Wow. So my motion for clarification was ignored. The judge ordered that the previous temporary order continue, but he gave no new dates and times and now, though my days through the week are still set, my weekends are once again up in the air. Other than having the original order that allows me two weekends a month. That both parties have to agree to. So once what happens when we don't agree. The whole idea was to have clarification so that there would be no agreeing or disagreeing. Nope instead back to dealing with an ex that is beyond manipulative. Plus having to submit forms for an assessment and $200 non refundable fee with the forms to be submitted by Dec.22. The fact that I couldn't even give submissions addressing any financial concerns I may have, etc.....For those of you who do read this, know one thing, they say there are rules for the courts and the Judges to follow, but let it be known that they will do what they want, when they want. My experience is that because I am unrepresented and simply representing myself they treat me with disdain and have no respect at all for me or my position. But my ex, who has money and a lawyer were afforded every opportunity to make submissions on something that was not part of MY motion. I can only hope that I can make submissions in January that address my concerns regarding this assessment and its cost. I am all for an assessment etc.....but I am completely appalled at how this happened with no regard for me or my position or the rules of the court for that matter. The Judge being part of the Courts and the System failed me this day, and was an ass to boot.

Small claims and the many delays

My spouse and I were at our motion hearing for a small claims case we were involved with the other day. That same day we had a settlement conference for the same case, however, we wanted our motion heard first. Our motion was to dismiss this case in its entirety or at the very least our involvement in it. On the date of this motion, it had almost been two years since the claim was first filed. During this time, we had a settlement conference already only to be told a second one was scheduled because they found the other person they were suing in default and this person finally filed a defence in essence starting the procedure all over again. We had been scheduled a trial date only for that to be cancelled and another settlement conference scheduled. This other person who was originally found in default would never respond to a summons, ignore all notification and ignore the case completely but as soon as his pay cheque was garnished it did not take long for him to file a motion for a stop to the garnishment and a motion to have a chance, another chance that is to file a defence. Who ends up getting screwed in the end is us. We replied and did everything we were supposed to and in the end out motion was dismissed because as the judge stated, because the delay was no fault of the plaintiff, but instead it was a clerical error, he could not grant our motion. We actually spoke to that clerk and she admitted her mistake in terms of keeping with the time lines of when a date has to be set by, but when it came time for court, the judge was informed that the file had been misplaced. So here we are waiting for the second settlement conference because of someone elses error. We play by the rules and get screwed. Karma being karma, we have a good case and should win in the end, but it doesn't diminish the fact that it seems everyone else can get away with errors and outright lack of respect for the rules that are in place regarding time lines and filing on time and get away with it.....but heaven forbid we are late or don't respond to something on time, we would be raked over the coals. Oh and FYI, if you ever need an adjournment and want to make sure the court has no choice but to grant one, simply call a witness or main party to the case and tell them they don't have to be there, and the next day when they don't show up, simply ask for the adjournment and low and behold it will be granted because the court cannot continue without that individual. Sneaky but effective.

Family Responsibility Office- Powers

The last couple of days I have been reading various articles in several Toronto newspapers and have been listening to talk radio in the Toronto area that had to do with the ability of the Family Responsibility Office to now be able to seize/impound a payers vehicle once he has fallen behind in payments etc.

My feeling towards this is twofold. Being a payer and having proudly paid support for my children and not having any issues with FRO personally, I can say that FRO is there to do a job and that is to simply enforce court orders or agreements that parties have agreed on and want FRO to enforce. Having said that, many times, in order to make changes to an order, one has to file a motion. Motions are typically easy to do and one does not have to spend lots of money on lawyers, instead they can do it themselves. The motions I would group in the easy column would be a change in support motion that was caused due to being laid off and or sickness and was not engineered by the payer would be a straight forward motion that would be dealt with relatively quickly. Every other motion I would group in the more difficult column and depending on your experience and expertise, would consider hiring a lawyer.

In over five years paying support, I was never late with a payment. When my income changed and I could no longer maintain paying the amount I was paying I had to file a motion to reduce my payments because I was now making less. During the time it took the court to change the amount I had to pay, I only paid the book amount and as such was falling into arrears for those months it took the court to lower my amount. In the end that arrears was erased because the court based my support on the book amount and therefore though technically I did go into arrears, the court retroactively erased these arrears. Confusing, I know. Anyway, during this time I received a letter from FRO telling me I was in arrears and they give you options on how you can arrange to pay back this money. I advised that I was currently before the courts and they told me they wouldn't enforce anything until my motion was dealt with. I simply had to give them my case number and court date. So in my case, FRO was easy to deal with.

The seizing or impounding of a vehicle, I would think would be used by FRO in extreme cases in which an individual has had an order to pay and has avoided paying at every cost, has tried to outrun FRO and his responsibility to his children and the arrears are staggering. Keeping in mind that taking someones vehicle would considerably hinder that persons ability for employment. If FRO can, on an individual bases, accurately and fairly look at every case and the persons circumstances and interpret properly the orders they are to enforce then it should be no problem. Keep in mind there will always be those individuals who fall through the crack and get screwed. That's my blurb for the day.

Family Responsibility Office

Otherwise known as FRO, the Family Responsibility Office to the beginner can be somewhat intimidating. I must admit that when I first became involved with FRO I was nervous and had some anxiety. Coming from a profession in which, in my opinion, 75% of the officers are involved in their 2nd or 3rd relationship and so the stories, horror stories that is, that I have heard made me very fearful of what being involved with FRO would mean.

My first divorce was a cake walk. My second, not so much...lol. The judgement was that I pay my ex spouse upwards of $1600 a month which was based on my salary at the time of around $65,000. This amount was both spousal and child support. Now I could go on and on about how I was screwed, but I won't. I will simply say I was screwed. Focusing on FRO and the amount of money I was to pay my ex, this is how it works. The individual who is awarded the support has the option of having FRO involved or not. In my case my ex chose to go through FRO. After the judgement and the papers are sent off to FRO, a file and case number is then created. FRO advises the payer not to pay the recipient any money during this set up period. This period of time usually takes up to three months. I would recommend that even though you are not paying the money during the setup period, you should at least set aside this money, because it is expected that you will be paying that money once the file creation is completed. Once this is done, you can then make your payment to FRO monthly. This can be done just as you would pay a bill online. FRO states that the payment is due on the first of every month, however, I always wait until the end of the month to collect the interest. As long as the money is paid no later than the last day of the month, FRO cannot penalize you or take any kind of action against you. I should also state that FRO provided me with that tip. FRO will also send you a letter telling you are in arrears the money that you didn't pay during the set up of the case file. This isn't a problem if you put that money aside like I stated earlier. If you didn't put that money aside, well then you can expect another letter from FRO weeks later asking you how you would like to pay back your arrears. Keep in mind that the recipient will be the catalyst of every letter you receive from FRO regarding arrears. The recipient usually tells FRO she hasn't gotten money and as such, FRO advises the recipient to fill out the proper paper work. Once this is done and sent to FRO, FRO will then take the appropriate actions to get that money.

Initially I was against my ex going through FRO because I was never late with money and always proudly paid on time. So I took it that by her going through FRO that this was indeed a slap in the face. However, after having time to get used to the idea and realizing that it actually protects my interests, has much as her interests, I gladly paid FRO. The added benefit is that I never had to deal with my ex about money. I also came to realize that FRO simply goes by the most recent information they have in the file. In other words, most recent court order, future court dates etc.

If you have cause to change the support amount, etc, then I recommend you file a motion. During this time if you have been laid off, sick etc and cannot afford the support, or whatever your reasoning and you have filed the motion, so long as you keep FRO updated on future court dates, it is very unlikely they will impose any kind of penalty. But don't think for a moment that you can ignore them or run from them, because if you do you will only be sorry. Make every effort to pay. 

So in conclusion, FRO is good and can work in your favor. Just don't be afraid to file that motion if you need to. It can be time consuming and frustrating, but it is worth it in the end.

Police vs. Public

The Toronto Star has recently done an investigation into several SIU investigations involving various police officers and what the outcomes of those investigations were. They have pointed out that in every case they have gone into detail about, it would appear that police officers are treated completely different than regular citizens and in cases where had it been a civilian, charges would have most definitely been laid, yet in cases involving police officers, the officers were more likely to get off without any type of charges laid against him or her, as well as avoiding any police act charges.

Yes, police have a very difficult job to carry out. They are scrutinized at every corner for every decision they make. It is in my opinion one of the most stressful jobs to do, I've done it. With that said, I also think that the police get away with more than they should, most specifically in investigations involving officers who have used force of some type and an individual ends up getting killed or at the very least his ass kicked. I have been involved in these types of investigations in some form or fashion and have unique first hand experience in how things are done.

The system is what it is and relies heavily on evidence. Evidence comes in various forms. Everything from eye witness accounts, video, audio, statements, physical, etc....you get the idea. The reason most officers don't end up getting charged is because in most cases these so called statements of witness and subject officers are often scripted. As such, this evidence and the lack of other evidence, and lets not forget the so called blue wall that everyone hears about, and I can assure you that this does exist, it all affects the system so much so that the officer(s) end up not being charged, or justified in what they did because they themselves, both subject officers and witness officers have had their statements scripted. Therefore the system, taking that evidence to be the truth ends up coming out with the headlines "Officers found not at fault" or something to that effect. In the case I was involved with, I was a witness officer. A youth had stolen a car, gotten into a police chase and struck an elderly gentleman on a bicycle, killing him. I arrived on scene, got into a foot chase with the youth and ended up arresting the youth. Without going into more detail, because a citizen was killed during a police chase it became bigger than I ever imagined. All of a sudden, I was called at the station while processing the youth. Spoke to my union rep, and subsequently advised to call a specific lawyer. I called this lawyer and he basically told me what to write. I was told to write my notes on regular letter size paper and to meet, him and a very high ranking member of the police association at a bar located downtown. Once I arrived the lawyer reviewed my statement, made any changes he felt were necessary and then told me it would be alright for me to then write this into my notebook. Can you see anything wrong with that process? Me too. But this was and still is for the most part the culture of policing. I can honestly say I don't miss it. 

Focusing on topic, the system, I am simply stating that because the evidence against a regular citizen is fairly straight forward and on the level, however, when a policeman finds themselves as the focus of the investigation, the process of collecting and the authenticity of this evidence, is collected by the SIU as best as it can be, the problem is, is that police do get more of an opportunity to shape that evidence into evidence that places themselves in a more favorable light and more often than not is enough to get them off. The system works, its just......shall we say can be  manipulated by those who want to and know how and who are allowed to.

Small Claims

Just helped a friend during a settlement conference for a small claims case. From the time we got there to the time we left, with a settlement to the matter, was an hour and a half in total. It went smoothly, but in this case all parties were willing to listen to one another and respect each others case and where they were coming from. Simply put we met somewhere in the middle and I can say that this was by far the smoothest case I have been involved with. Credit should go to all parties including the JP and the clerks. It was a job well done and a shining example of how the courts and the system are supposed to work. Even had a settlement not been reached, this case would still be an example of a success on how the courts and the system were intended to work.

Clerks of the Courts

Whether you are a lawyer, paralegal, or simply representing yourself in court at some point during any court process you will undoubtedly have to deal with a court clerk. As one who has represented himself on several occasions there seems to be one aspect of dealing with these clerks that stands out for me. Some are down right rude, condescending, and have absolutely no people skills yet work in a field that one should have some type of skills dealing with people. Maybe some empathy as well and a bit of understanding for the situation that people like us find ourselves in.  Yes we all have bad days, but when a lawyer or paralegal come in and are treated with a certain respect and a regular citizen comes in right after and is basically snubbed and disrespected when all they are asking for are forms or to have something sworn to and perhaps have something explained to them, it is simply giving themselves a black eye and a reputation that at some point will catch up with them. I mean, for myself, I use it as motivation. I realize that by representing ones self you risk slowing the process down by not knowing the process and forms to use but at the end of the day, this is  a country that you have the Right to represent yourself. Some don't have the money, some don't qualify for legal aid and in my case, I simply hate to have to pay someone to represent me in a case that only I know everything about, and am more than capable of doing myself and in most case do it better than most lawyers and paralegals. That is why I will always be glad to give advice to anyone who asks and tell people though the courts and the system can seem intimidating at times, you can do it. If the clerks were friendlier and more helpful and less condescending then the system might actually feel a little more comfortable and less intimidating.

Motions

Well today is a day of motions which always seem to result in emotion if you hold a personal stake in said case. I only say this because as one write's out the content of their motion you are essentially telling a story because you have to back that motion up with an affadavit. A motion is something you are asking the court to grant. Once you write what you want then you have to submit a supporting affadavit. In other words the reasons you are asking for your motion to be granted. So by the time you are done this you will most likely be emotionally exhausted. Then comes service of these documents to all parties involved. That is another story for another day.

Following the rules of the courts and the system

Following the rules and the guidelines when dealing with any case is frustrating, but even more so when you yourself has a personal stake in the case. The amount of time between dates is one thing, but the duplication and the jumping through hoops is what makes me shake my head. All persons involved in any case can make or break the process. What I mean is that if these persons (on both sides) follow the rules then the process does work, it just takes time. However, if you get someone, who just does not care about the rules, the process or simply has no regard for the court and the system whatsoever, then what you end up with is a court and system that usually gives the benefit of the doubt to that person until they can no longer ignore that persons lack of inaction and go ahead with matters anyway. By then, months if not years have passed by,  what should have only taken half of the time has taken far too long. The ironic thing is, is that even if you in the end by doing everything the right way finally get rewarded with a favourable judgement, enforcing that judgement is a whole other process. Another game that the person who in the beginning, did not care for the process and delayed it at every turn, again has another opportunity to delay, prevent, stop, bog down the system, use whatever word you like, to prevent justice, simple satisfaction, or any kind of finality by manipulating the very same courts and the system that resulted in where the matter stands at present. The system though it can work, it can also be manipulated and benefit the people who should be benefitting the least from it. Those who have the best of intentions and are using the only system available to them are unfortunately the ones being punished in the end.

Experience

I have spent a great deal of time in the court system at various levels. After having spent over ten years policing much of this time was spent in both criminal courts and provincial offences court. Further, having been married and divorced twice I have spent a great deal of time in the family courts. I have also held individuals accountable for their actions by suing them for libel/slander as well as for monetary losses. I can say that in my young adult life I have spent more time in the court and its system than most regular people and feel that I have a wealth of knowledge and insight into the Courts and the System