I thought I’d share a little tale from a recent courtroom hearing experience I had that worked out great for my client but not so great for the other guy (or woman in this particular case). And not as a matter of immodesty but rather because I could see something like this happening to me and it’s a good reminder of the importance of doing at least a little client preparation before your next court hearing. Because I know with me, there are 2-3 hearing types that I do ALL THE TIME (contempt defense, child support modification, dissolution of marriage prove-up) but my clients don’t.
My issue last week was a parentage case for retroactive child support and there was potentially some $30,000 at stake. Simply, this was a case where the mother of 2 children filed for child support some 8 years after the children were born and the Parentage Act potentially allows for retroactive child support to be awarded for that time period between the date of filing and the date of the birth of the children, so in this case some 8 years. That’s a lot of $$$ at some $1,000 per month in child support.
Well, one of the factors that a court must weigh in deciding these retroactive cases is:
(5) The extent to which the father would be prejudiced by the delay in bringing the action (750 ILCS 45/14(b)).
OK, so if you’re not an Illinois domestic relations attorney you might be asking yourself, and why do I care? CLIENT HEARING PREPARATION.
The lawyers representing the mother in my case repeatedly asked her whether her delay in bringing this case would “prejudice” the father (my client). And she repeatedly answered, YES! And there were several reasons why the judge in my case ruled in the father’s favor but the “prejudice” factor was one of the 2 primary reasons the judge cited. And why did the mother say that, yes, the father would be prejudiced? SHE DIDN’T KNOW THE MEANING OF THE WORD PREJUDICE! Something just a bit of CLIENT HEARING PREPARATION may have taken care of.
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