settlement conference was a giant mess!
frklsbride
member
xw ranted and raved and had to be taken out of the conference a few times by her attorney. eventually, mikaela went in to a room alone with both attorneys. when she went in, she wanted to come and live with us and visit her mom...when she came out, she had a 50/50 split time plan in her hand. apparently xw's attorney said, "isn't this what you meant to say?" and handed her an alternating weeks plan. the attorney continued to press her on the split time thing and our attorney didn't step in at all. mikaela is not the type of person to contradict or argue with adults so she accepted it. by the end of the conference, we had moved to alternating weeks with us having her only 2 days a month more than her mom. even though we have her more days per month, we will still be paying child support.
dsd wants us to refuse to sign this version of the modification and go to court. it's a giant mess.
Re: settlement conference was a giant mess!
If she doesn't want you to sign it, and wants to live with you, don't sign it. Take it to court, have the judge speak with Mikaela IN PRIVATE IN CHAMBERS and without the presence of her mother and her mother's attorney. Have a Guardian Ad Litem assigned to her to represent her interests. I'm sorry it was a mess. I'm even sorrier that your attorney didn't fight for what you wanted. What a klusterphuque. I'd be seriously *not happy* with my attorney if it came down to it. He didn't represent you, imo, if he let her walk out the door with an agreement in hand that you don't see as an acceptable compromise, it's not what she stated she wanted and he let her attorney railroad her, a child, into it. Honestly, she should never have been put in a position of having to negotiate with the attorneys to begin with. That is completely wrong and unacceptable on both parties' parts.
Is it possible that DSD is telling BOTH sides what they want to hear? That yes she wants to live with you and yes she wants to live with mom?
Kids can sometimes be fickle like that. Any chance?
I don't usually share personal experience but I was put in the very.same.position. that you suggest your DSD be put in-that is taken in to see a judge and asked my opinion. It was horrific. My opinion at age 12 was that it should be decided without me and causing me horrific stress and turmoil. The judge was extremely sympathetic, but court, a judge, and lawyers, even the most considerate and thoughtful was too much for me. I hated it and I resent to this day that my parents sucked a*ss so much that I had to be put in the middle.