How to Use Lawyers-and-Laws.com

"Are you Jeremy L.?" the constable asked.

"Yes," he admitted.

"I've got some papers for you."

"I didn't think it was a social call," Jeremy replied.

It was a day he had long dreaded.

Jeremy owed $21,000.00 in past due child support, and his ex-wife demanded he pay it.

Actually, she was asking for more than that. Her attorney wanted the court to hold Jeremy in contempt, to grant a judgment for the entire amount plus attorney fees, and to incarcerate him until the money was paid.

He shuffled back inside his house, sat down and stared into the ashen fireplace. He thought back over the years after his divorce. How he took possession of his son for two years while still paying his wife child support. How he and his son forged a deeper relationship during that time. And you can't put a price on that, he thought. And then four years ago his son had graduated from high school and in two months would graduate from college.

But now this.

For a while he and his ex-wife had been cordial with each other. But then she remarried - not too happily - and periodically threatened that she would collect all the back child support from him, not giving him any credit at all for the time he had their son.

But jail? Why was she still so angry with him?

Jail. After all he had done to care for his son in high school and help him as much as he could through college.

Damn.

Could she do that, he thought? I mean, can she legally throw me in jail for this? He had friends who had spent time in jail for this very thing. Was it his turn now?

Damn.

He scarcely slept at all.

The next morning he went to the website he had used to guide him in forming a recent partnership. He remembered the site had many of the state laws governing family law issues. He didn't really know where to start, but he started browsing through the child support laws, not knowing quite what to look for. Then he stumbled across a law that was helpful. And he slept a lot better that night. I'll tell you why in a moment.

Lawyers-and-Laws.com provides articles and selections of laws about what concerns you most - in areas of bankruptcy, business, criminal law, divorce and family law, personal injury and class action lawsuits, insurance, tax and wills. We believe that the more you know, the better prepared you will be to ask the right questions and understand the best answers when you consult an attorney.

At the top of every page of the site you will find links to these areas of law. Click on the one you need to arrive at the basic menu of codes or statutes we provide for you. Two months prior to the constable's visit, Jeremy had clicked on "business" and browsed through the partnership statutes for his state. Now he clicked on "Divorce" to go to the family law issues.

When you click on the area of law that concerns you, you will find a list that includes "federal" and states to choose. Bankruptcy is primarily a federal area of law. So you would click on "federal" to find helpful statutes about that. Some crimes, like espionage, are primarily federal, too. Family law arises almost exclusively in the states. And most criminal law arises from state statutes, too.

So if you are interested in criminal law issues and living in California, after clicking on "Criminal", you would click on "California." You will then find a list of codes to consider. Browse through the ones most promising and keep a record of the statutes that are helpful.

Write down questions that come to you as you read the law. Organize them for your interview with an attorney. You will be better prepared than 90% of the clients the attorney sees.

A few pointers. Sometimes the juvenile justice code is mixed in with the criminal statutes and sometimes it is with family law statutes, depending on the state. It actually fits in either place because the juvenile justice system is a blend of the adult criminal system and the adult civil system, with a little family services mixed in.

Income tax, of course, is primarily federal law. On the other hand, except for the tax part, wills and trusts is heavily centered in the states. And although the business law of most states is similar, making it appear almost to be as uniform as federal law, much of the business law you need will come from the state statutes. Personal injury law is likewise centered in the states.

One very important exception to state centered personal injury law is the ever-popular class action lawsuit, the grand sweepstakes of litigation. By the very nature of class action suits, often involving thousands of victims across many states, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, chapter 23, governs their authorization and procedure.

Of course, Jeremy had no need of such grandiose statutes. His main concern was jail for failure to pay child support. He knew with enough time he could repay her. But not if he were incarcerated.

He looked over the child support topics in the family code. One of the first was entitled "Time Limitations for Enforcement of Child Support." It was a pretty clear statute: "The court retains jurisdiction to render a contempt order for failure to comply with the child support order if the motion for enforcement is filed not later than the sixth month after the date on which the child support obligation terminates under the order or by operation of law."

Jeremy's child support order had terminated almost four years ago when his son graduated from high school.

So how could the attorney threaten him with incarceration for contempt? Perhaps Jeremy misunderstood the statute.

He called a recommended lawyer to confirm his interpretation of the statute. The attorney was livid that the opposing lawyer had pretended to have the power to threaten Jeremy with jail. But the attorney was not surprised since he had seen such tactics before. The lawyer drafted an answer to the claim presented by the constable, then counterclaimed for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

In most cases, the court would not have regarded such a counterclaim as serious. But the judge was both familiar and disgusted with the practice of the opposing lawyer. He awarded no "official" damages for the counterclaim, but he denied the opposing lawyer attorney fees for the case and granted a lengthy payout for the child support arrearages.

It was a nice day in court.

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