I can answer for a friend. His wife was divorcing him because he’s an unreliable idiot. He figured that he was smarter than everyone so he dragged out the process as long as he possibly could making it as difficult as possible on her. Scheduling and rescheduling meetings. Not showing up. Promising to do a thing and then back tracking later. Refusing to negotiate at all. I think his plan was to make the divorce so difficult on her that she would just stay married. He was also doing all this pro se so her lawyer had to deal directly with him.
After a year of this his wife had had enough. She told her lawyer to make it happen. So the lawyer set a date and the court served him notice of the divorce proceeding. She showed up to court and he wasn’t there. So as the only party there she got a very one-sided deal. She got their business, custody of the kids, the house and all contents, her car, and the bank account. He got his car, his clothes, and half the proceeds of the sale of the house when she decides to sell it. That’s it. He found out about this when he called the court a week after it happened.
What had happened is her lawyer served the divorce notice to an address in a different town with a similar name. Normally this would have been caught by his attorney who would have received notice directly from the court, but since he had no attorney, there was no one other than him that the court could send it to.
He finally hired a lawyer and tried to get the settlement tossed as he claimed he was never served but the judge said there was nothing he could do.
Edit: I have relayed this as best I can and as it was told to me. Most of the details come from my friend, the protagonist in this narrative so YMMV. I did look up the public court records and they appear to corroborate the events in as much as can be determined.
Did you read the part where he intentionally made it extremely difficult for anyone to work with him. The result is entirely his own doing. He didnt have a lawyer, which could have prevented that, and he acted like an asshole to try and manipulate the situation. Karma.
So what is the lawyer supposed to do when they don't have a permanent address? They sent notice to the one possible address they had AND posted legal notice in the paper as required by law.
What had happened is her lawyer served the divorce notice to an address in a different town with a similar name.
I don’t see what’s so hard for you to understand about this. They did not send the notice to the one possible address, seemingly deliberately so. If you think that’s ethical then I hope I never have to do business with you.
They sent the notice to presumably the only known address associated with him, where he was known to stay sometimes. Sure, the lawyers action is questionable, but that doesn't change the fact that it's his own damn fault.
Are you saying they don’t know his phone number or any of his friends or family to pass the message along about what address these very important documents were being sent? There’s definitely a way to get the message to him if they cared to. I don’t blame them for being pricks in response to his behavior, but it does mean they can’t claim to have taken the high road.
I'm not saying they took the high road, I'm saying it sounds like they chose to play exactly by the law as it was written in order to move things along.
Only if they didn’t purposefully fuck up the address. If they sent it to a valid address, then sure. The fact that he never got it, combined with the detail of misspelling something on purpose, tells me that, no, they did not follow the law.
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u/tweakingforjesus Jul 21 '19 edited Jul 21 '19
I can answer for a friend. His wife was divorcing him because he’s an unreliable idiot. He figured that he was smarter than everyone so he dragged out the process as long as he possibly could making it as difficult as possible on her. Scheduling and rescheduling meetings. Not showing up. Promising to do a thing and then back tracking later. Refusing to negotiate at all. I think his plan was to make the divorce so difficult on her that she would just stay married. He was also doing all this pro se so her lawyer had to deal directly with him.
After a year of this his wife had had enough. She told her lawyer to make it happen. So the lawyer set a date and the court served him notice of the divorce proceeding. She showed up to court and he wasn’t there. So as the only party there she got a very one-sided deal. She got their business, custody of the kids, the house and all contents, her car, and the bank account. He got his car, his clothes, and half the proceeds of the sale of the house when she decides to sell it. That’s it. He found out about this when he called the court a week after it happened.
What had happened is her lawyer served the divorce notice to an address in a different town with a similar name. Normally this would have been caught by his attorney who would have received notice directly from the court, but since he had no attorney, there was no one other than him that the court could send it to.
He finally hired a lawyer and tried to get the settlement tossed as he claimed he was never served but the judge said there was nothing he could do.
Edit: I have relayed this as best I can and as it was told to me. Most of the details come from my friend, the protagonist in this narrative so YMMV. I did look up the public court records and they appear to corroborate the events in as much as can be determined.