Court and Cthulhu!
Jul. 3rd, 2003 06:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsWell, the big question is: how did court go?
I learned that comissioners have very little power of discretion. They are the janitors of the legal system, cleaning up what the judges don't want to deal with. They have a comission from a superior judge and marching orders and that's about it. They do "raw numbers" work and the petty spats over monthly enforcements and crap like that. The comissioner in our case looked over the details and had more or less made up her mind when we walked in; she didn't want to deal in petty grievances or micromanagement, she just wanted to get the child support done according to the letter of the law.
And that's what she did. Ex predictably tried to argue, to wheedle, to contradict; I figured out quickly enough that this was a no-nonsense comissioner, but Ex managed to get the comissioner's ire up a bit. She does this every year. Still, I get the feeling the commissioner's been doing this enough that it would take a lot for her to get personally worked up about such a small difference. So the Ex gets told that she does have a financial responsibility to Yamaarashi-chan whether she wants it or not, gets told what that amount is, and that was that. Ten minutes and it was over. Omaha was actually disappointed that out of the four inches of documents submitted to the court over the past two years, it all came down to four pages the commissioner herself filled out in a spreadsheet. That and absolutely unambiguous law and doctrine.
Cthulhu lives! Yes, ladies and gentlement, Cthulhu has washed up on shore in Chile. When night comes, be prepared for screams.
I learned that comissioners have very little power of discretion. They are the janitors of the legal system, cleaning up what the judges don't want to deal with. They have a comission from a superior judge and marching orders and that's about it. They do "raw numbers" work and the petty spats over monthly enforcements and crap like that. The comissioner in our case looked over the details and had more or less made up her mind when we walked in; she didn't want to deal in petty grievances or micromanagement, she just wanted to get the child support done according to the letter of the law.
And that's what she did. Ex predictably tried to argue, to wheedle, to contradict; I figured out quickly enough that this was a no-nonsense comissioner, but Ex managed to get the comissioner's ire up a bit. She does this every year. Still, I get the feeling the commissioner's been doing this enough that it would take a lot for her to get personally worked up about such a small difference. So the Ex gets told that she does have a financial responsibility to Yamaarashi-chan whether she wants it or not, gets told what that amount is, and that was that. Ten minutes and it was over. Omaha was actually disappointed that out of the four inches of documents submitted to the court over the past two years, it all came down to four pages the commissioner herself filled out in a spreadsheet. That and absolutely unambiguous law and doctrine.
Cthulhu lives! Yes, ladies and gentlement, Cthulhu has washed up on shore in Chile. When night comes, be prepared for screams.
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Date: 2003-07-03 07:29 am (UTC)Anonymous in Washington, DC
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Date: 2003-07-03 09:27 am (UTC)"Kouryou-chan is always a source of delight and wonder in Elf's journal. Yamaarashi-chan always seems to be a problem that has to be managed. Surely she is source of delight and wonder too."
She is. If you had the opportunity to see this from other than the rather ethereal medium of LJ and USENET posts, you might know that.
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Date: 2003-07-03 09:39 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-07-03 09:40 am (UTC)One comment to make
Date: 2003-07-03 08:10 am (UTC)I *don't* know what is going on between you and her...
Yes, you don't. And I don't mean to say that as a snide "so shut up", but as a warning that any opinion you have is truly based on very limited information. Your relationship with your ex is based on both of you having agreed to be civil towards each other and treat each other with respect for the benefit of Onyx. And this is a good thing.
Unfortunately, Elf's ex has decided not to be. And there is much more going on than just that...I can't go into details at this time (but eventually everyone will hear something about it). However, this undiscussed behavior is the basis for his (and my) behavior towards her.
What does this all mean? I suspect that you (and anyone else reading this) will assume that a certain minimum behavior is due from him based on your assumptions of what her minimum behavior has actually been. And since you will be wrong with the assumption of her minimum behavior, I suspect that you may be disappointed and perhaps rather antagonistic towards him with regards to his response.
Re: One comment to make
Date: 2003-07-03 02:24 pm (UTC)I do have to say though, that you don't need to worry so about the kid here. There are many people who have her best interests at heart. This thing is going to continue to be difficult and even ugly for awhile, but the child is being watched and taken care of. What is best for her *is* the primary consideration in all this.
It's good that you care though. Just wanted to reassure you.
Re: One comment to make
Date: 2003-07-03 03:35 pm (UTC)Vamp:)=
As I see it...
Date: 2003-07-03 09:22 am (UTC)Even though you bring up the psycho-drama that is the relationship with the mother (as if thousands of people on the net don't feel they know all about it), it really doesn't speak to any failing on the part of Elf and Omaha as parents at all.
In the decade we have known them, I have had no worry about who would raise our two daughters were my partner and I killed in some bizarre gardening accident. We had every confidence that Elf and Omaha, even when they had no children, would take care of our children and provide for them, sometimes in ways even better than we have.
As a father of two almost grown daughters, as someone who has seen Elf and Omaha per kids, as someone who has witnessed their attention and dedication post kids, I see no reasonable stance on questioning them as parents -- even if you toss in the psychodrama of the mother.
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Date: 2003-07-03 07:39 am (UTC)I sued a landlord once, and got a judge like that. The landlord tried to make excuses and stuff long after the judge had found the legal problem, and almost got herself some nice yummy contempt of court to go along with loosing the case. If you get a no-nonsense judge (or comissioner or whatever), don't argue except on actual legal grounds, and take your lumps if you have lumps coming.
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Date: 2003-07-03 02:32 pm (UTC)