Posted by NCWayne on November 19, 2010 at 10:34:26 from (98.21.228.96):
Hey, JohnT I"ve seen you answer a good many legal questions on here and I"ve got sort of a general one for you. What would it be called, and would it be a violation of ethics/law/etc to put something in a case file without going through the proper channels and having it file stamped, etc? In this case it"s a report from a therapist dealing with my stepdaughter and her biological father. The origional court order stated the therapist was to return to court and give a report, not write one nearly 6 months after dropping her services. Too when the report was written it was sent to opposing counsel (who we assume put the copy of it in the file) and not to us. We just happened to find out about it several weeks after the fact and were able to obtain a copy ourselves. That said, we went to the courthouse the other day for a support related matter (him not paying but wanting it reduced anyway) and pulled the file and found a copy of the report in it that was not file stamped. According to the clerk the only things in a file that don"t get stamped are court related papers about the case (ie papers showing hearing dates, etc) but not really pertinant to the case itself. He said that even though the report was never introduced into evidence at a hearing ((then it would have been stamped and file automatically)) or anything that it should have still had to go through "proper channels" and be stamped before being placed in the file.
So, the only way the report could have gotten into the file unstamped would have been for opposing counsel to have placed it there when reviewing the file as we are 99.99999999% sure the biological father wouldn"t have done it as he most likely doesn"t even know the file exists or where to get it if he did.
Given the issues in this case we wouldn"t put it past the opposing counsel to pull a stunt like this in an attempt to allow the judge to see the report without us having any chance of rebuttal as to it"s contents since they place my wife and I at fault for the lack of a relationship between the biological father and the child...yet fails to mention the fact that he refused and continues to refuse to even call and talk to the child as she ordered him to do by the therapist and was all but begged to do, in writing by us. Too there"s no mention of the fact that he spent supervised visits with her talking on his cell and off smoking (which was in violation of the order), etc, etc. In other words he takes absolutely no responsibility for even trying to form the relationship he said he wanted beyond emailing and saying "bring her to me" yet it"s our fault that the child is still ambivilant toward him and doesn"t care to spend time with him.....
It"s a way longer story to say the least but, like I said, given the way things have gone I wouldn"t put it past opposing counsel to put the report in the file in an attempt to allow the judge to see it while reviewing it for a support related matter (him not paying) in somewhat of an attempt to "discredit" us while giving us no real chance at rebuttal.........
Got to be something illegal, underhanded, unethical, etc about doing something like this, just not sure what it is....Can you tell me what, if anything is being violated by putting something into a file like this without it either being presented as evidence or going through "proper" channels...WITHOUT OUR KNOWLEDGE......Seems like it could almost be viewed as an attempt at ex-parte communication with the judge as we were never informed it was in the file.......Any advice would be greatly appreciated as my wife has had to handle things since the origional trial pro-se since the first round broke us financially. The biological father on the other hand still has a lawyer hanging on who, from what we understand, wasn"t completely paid for the first trial and still isn"t getting paid.
On that note a second question. What reasons would make/force a lawyer stick with a client who isn"t paying him? Heck this guy is worthless and opposing counsel knows it and has all but stated it to us yet he keeps representing him. At least he has so far....even though he did fail to show up at the latest calander call to reschedule a hearing asked for by his client back in Feb seeking to reduce the support payment he only makes part of anyway. Needless to say the case isn"t being heard so his client is still stuck with the origional judgment amount..... Anyway, what would/could force a lawyer to stay with someone like that????
Any insite into this would be greatly appreciated. If you want to answer direct my email is northwest80d@ctc.net THANKS
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