It is now October 10th, my mother's birthday is in 3 days! What could I get for her that could make her forget what she has had to endure and the nasty divorce she is still going through! That's right! The divorce she had been waiting for, the one that started when mom was 73 well now she will be 77 years old, and it has almost consumed the rest of what is left of her life! Mentally, pysically, and financially! She has been completely drained of it all! She weighs about 90 lbs soaking wet and whatever the cancer didn't take from her, the stress from this neverending divorce has! Still no word on a trial date and still no support from the man that stripped her of her life and independence!

Left Hanging!!!! Really???

The weeks are passing by and my mother still won't let me hang this lawyer through the Florida Bar Association! Mom also refuses to let me call or write to the attorney. She thinks it will harm her case! If she knew about these blogs ,she would KILL ME!! How could this lawyer sleep at night knowing she is leaving an elderly woman broke, hungry, with no home,car, medication,or any financial support from her husband who controled her every dime during the whole 16 years of marriage! Couldn't the lawyer or the judge order the husband to help support her through this 3 year divorce? She gave up everything for this man to cater to him and move where he wanted! He never even let her have her own income tax return money! She gets to leave with NOTHING??? Isn't Florida a 50/50 state? Zero access to all accounts accept her own little nest egg that she cashed in and gave away to the lawyer for doing nothing! Of course I wouldn't leave my mother to the streets, but she has no privacy here, no room or storage of her own, not to mention she is to old and stressed out to deal with my young ones 24-7. She needs peace and quiot and peace of mind!! If this attorney IS REALLY WORKING on this case, why wouldn't she contact my mother and assure her things ARE moving along, and not to worry so much! After paying over $30,000 in Legal fees, she derves a phone call at the VERY LEAST!!!! My mother SHOULD NOT BE LEFT HANGING!

You Thought He Was Your Hero

Starting out he was a charm. Wined and dined you, said all nice things, and kept you safe from harm. He took you to beautiful places, he loved showing you off to many new faces. After the wedding he moved you away. You left your job, your family, friends and your independence, all in one day. As time went on, the niceness turned sour. Little by little, you began to cower. He would often hurt you, call you an idiot, dumb, and stupid. Never the less, he turned out to be no cupid! Soon enough he began putting down your kids. For no good reason, just to hurt you, it was nothing that they did. Being told you are nothing for so long, you started thinking, maybe it was you that was wrong. He had you convinced, without him you will HAVE nothing, you will BE nothing but a zero. To think you wasted the best years of your life, because you thought he was your hero.

When "we the people" have legal matters that cannot be worked out on our own, we need to turn to a trusting source to help us fight for our rights. Unfortunately, this seems to be like a HUGE GAMBLE that we are taking. Often we end up investing all of our money into one trusted source hoping to find justice and compensation in the end. Frequently attorney fees can lead to financial devastation with little results. Of course everyone wants to make money so in a lot of cases people will try to lure you in by telling you exactally what you want to hear. How do we believe them? Even highly educated people will take advantage of you if they know you are vulnerable. Not everybody has time and money to keep fighting! When a business or firm accepts you in as a paying client they should be legally obligated to serve you accordingly, and apparently they are. However, if they are lawyers they already know how much they can get away with. They have the ability to charge you high fees and keep you on a low priority level at the same time. Chances are, if someone is going through a nasty divorce they have faught long enough, until the point of reaching the end of thier rope. Someone filing for divorce is tired of fighting before the fight even begins! When seeking out legal representation you are now relying on the law to help you get your life back. What if you are not lucky enough to find a compassionate, honest lawyer? What do you do if you are going on three years since you filed for divorce, you have already emptied all your accounts to pay your attorney fees as requested, and you do not even know if your lawyer is doing anything to move foward because you cannot get in touch with anyone at her office. Also you have questions, concerns, and have not received any returned calls or emails going on three to four months. Infact your "hopefully soon to be x husband" knows more about what is on your lawyers agenda then you do! Scary huh??? At this point you are thinking.... Is my lawyer in cahoots with my husbands lawyer?...Has she been offered more money to prolong actions or join his team? Has my lawyer ran off with my money?.... Has she gone out of business? There are a few actions you can take, start by visiting www.WeThePeople.com and the Florida Bar. However if you are out of funds and time, starting over may not be possible! Having a higher authority get intouch with your attorney for you, may really make her mad and withdraw from your case. Even if you want to fire her, all she has to do is write an itemized bill stating she earned all her fees to date and you will not get your money back! You also have it in the back of your mind, that MAYBE, she IS working on it, perhaps it is coming to a wrap soon! Taking actions against her at this time could harm your case results. But what do you do in the meantime, starve in suspense? How much longer could this go on? As with any business, serving paying clients, there must be some professional ethics involved here. How should an attorney treat their client? Again, the answer is communicate with the client! Prepare the client by telling them what to expect,keep them informed of any upcoming events or proceedings, what documents they may need to get together to be prepared for the trial. Also, explain time frames, such as how long it could take the courts to set a trial date and/or why it is taking so long? What the next step is, and/or how close you maybe coming to the end! Answer your clients questions, concerns,emails, or phone calls, atleast within 48 hours. Tell the client not to worry, that you are on it and will fight for her and make sure she is treated fairly. ect. This is what my mother has been going through! Reading up on the legal guidelines is all I can do for now. Although I know she needs so much help in dealing with this unfortunate situation, she is afraid to take any action. Mom is forbidding me to blog or reach out for help for her, as she is very humble, and for fear it may hurt her case. But at the same time she suffers, with no income from her husband. She deserves to be stress free and relax! Her car is broken down, she has no home to call her own, and her bills are piling up around her! She needs hearing aids and dental care, and just basic necessities. My mother is 76 years old as I stated in my first blog, the stress of all this is just breaking her down so quickly! Some nights she states how she doesn't even want to wake up from her sleep! Any suggestions, support, or free council would be much appreciated!! Thank you for reading!!

Running Out Of Time

At 73 years old, my mother realized she did not want to be miserable for another minute of her life! After 16 years of marriage being mistreated, mentally, verbally, and physically abused, I still don't think she had any intention, or even the courage to leave.
One day during a family BBQ at my mothers house was the last straw! Her husband acted so badly to my mom and toward our family, my little children aswell. We all felt very uncomfortable and unwelcomed that we decided that we could not go back anytime soon. This behavior was brought on because dinner would not be on the table until 5 o'clock. Needless to say we ate at McDonnalds that night. We did not even get to sample the horderves because they were thrown into the pool by my stepfather (moms husband). Mom was completely humiliated! After that my mother, missing her three children and grandchildren, decided that if we cannot be together as a happy family with her husband then she would rather do without him, without the house, with nothing if that would be the end result. Mom was destined to be stress free for her last years of life, however many! After all he has been yelling and screaming at her for years, telling her to get out and get a divorce, and so much more! Telling her that it is his house, and that she has nothing and would not survive because she would not get a dime or anything but the clothes on her back. Mom finally decided ENOUGH WAS ENOUGH!!! She filed for divorce, 3 years ago!!! STILL NOT DIVORCED!
Mom was told by her lawyer that she could not leave until the divorce was finalized or he could get her for desertion. However, he tried choking her twice and the verbal and mental abuse continued aswell. She lost alot of weight, became sick again after beating cancer, the stress has just got the best of her. Calling her lawyer for information has done no good because the attorney does not return calls. Infact she stated that she is not a "receptionist" and does not make appointments! However, we cannot get a hold of anyone else in her office. So my mothers doctor told her she needed to get out of that house due to the fact that it was seriously affecting her health and well being. Finally mom came up here to be with us, her family and escape from the lonely misery she was living in. Staying back and fourth between my brother and I. Although we are greatful to have her she feels like a burden, and has yet to reach peace in her life. Not to mention we all struggle right now and can't do much for her financially. Mom stays broke now that she cashed in all her savings and stocks to pay off her lawyer each time funds were requested. So far she has paid over $30,000.00 toward divorce proceedings. Her plans were to be independant and survive on her own since she is a young 76 year old in good shape, although the stress has weekened her emensely. Mom continues to stress because of financial difficulties. Divorce is hard enough, let alone having to go through with it at 76 years old!
We have tried contacting her lawyer several times by phone, email, and in person with no results, no return calls no one at the office, and very few emails only when fees were due. My mother recieves no help from her "hopefully soon to be x" husband and no compassion or support from her lawyer. We can not afford to hire another lawyer and my mom does not have another 3 years to waste. She deserves better then this! Mom's laywer advertises compassion and communication to her clients, that was apparently false advertisement. It saddens me that my Mom has to be the victim. She will not go to the legal bar association because she doesn't want to make her lawyer mad for fear this will never end. We are thinking mom's lawyer may be involved with the husbands lawyer somehow. Who knows, all I know is that my mom needs to settle down in her own home and have some peace and happiness in her life before it ends! Also we need to find out how we can get this lawyers attention and bring this madness to an end! If you can't trust in family law, who can you trust??? How will she make it? We need help!