Open letter to clients

[muck_a_luck]

Dear Clients:

All the documents we send to the Court must be correct. If you put in the wrong separation date. Or marriage location. Or whatever. That can have very serious repercussions down the line. As in, we get to start all over from scratch including service on your spouse and voiding of previous waivers.

Get the picture?

Don't blame me when we wind back the clock six weeks or more.

With kind regards and best wishes, I remain

Very truly yours,
CK

Comments

[andien.livejournal.com]

At least they didn't change thier mind in the witness box!

Lord help us

[muck-a-luck.livejournal.com]

Dear God!

Well, this was sort of the baby version of changing your mind in the witness box.

I was preparing the "script" for their deposition testimony in support of the divorce. This divorce is uncontested, so the testimony can take place, under oath, in our offices, and just be sumbitted to the Court with the Final Decree of Divorce.

The testimony is so incredibly basic - date and place of marriage, number of children born or adopted, military status, age of the parties, date of separation, last place of cohabitation, hope of reconciliation... No surprises. So, I can usually draft the "transcript" of the deposition before it takes place. We get all our ducks in a row, so the person can breeze in, take the oath, give the facts, I notarize, and they breeze out. Makes it *much* easier on the independent witness, too, not to have to sit around and wait.

BUT, at this stage we hit the problems. "Oh, that wasn't our separation date. We separated TWO YEARS before that." Or "Oh, we weren't *married* in that town. Sorry! We were *living* in that town. We got *married* in the next county, on the beach! I always get it confused when I tell people!"

So they are *almost* changing their testimony on the stand. Just nobody there to see the train wreck but us...

One woman was right on the edge of being qualified for divorce. She had chosen her husband's move-out date as the date of separation and we filed almost precisely on the exact date she would be eligible to file for divorce under Virginia law, based on the move-out date. No wiggle room. But the person she had chosen as her witness balked at providing the exact date of separation. Her witness was willing to say, "In January," but not "on January 12." That's start over time, right there. The woman decided it wasn't worth it and, much to my shock, she said she and her husband were attempting to reconcile!!!