Within the next day I researched the law and investigated their case and indeed found that the other party’s lawyer had failed to properly serve my clients with the Complaint and Summons.  The court granted my clients a 1 week Stay and a new hearing.  As predicted, the court granted a new “eviction” after the landlord’s lawyer corrected his mistake, but my clients were very appreciative they had gained extra time… and learned some valuable lessons about checking with a lawyer, sooner, not later, to avoid unnecessary legal problems.

Fortunately, I was able to find and work with an adoption attorney in the child’s birth state, whose services were paid (as were mine) by the adoptive parents.  Fortunately, the adoptive parents were able to begin caring for the child immediately after birth.  Unfortunately, the adoptive parents had to remain with the child on the East Coast while that state completed background checks that were heavily backlogged and delayed.  Unfortunately, the entire cost of the adoption far exceeded a “normal” adoption because of the complications of the Interstate Compact, the cost of searching for the biological father to terminate his parental rights (a prerequisite to adoption where the mother consents) and the threat of state agency involvement.  Despite the complications and cost, the adoption was finalized in a matter of months and a new family created for a fortunate child born to unfortunate circumstances.

“Just a phone call” can get results.

Tragically, after we succeeded in obtaining a temporary parenting plan he died from a sudden heart attack.  The child was again at risk since now the mother had superior legal rights of custody.  Our client’s former wife and mother to the child’s half sibling stepped in with her new husband to courageously take the place of the now deceased father.  We were able to successfully negotiate for them a Nonparental Custody Decree granting full legal rights to them for the care and custody of the child.  Further, they were appointed to probate the deceased father’s estate for the benefit of the child.  Through it all, this young boy was oblivious to the legal maneuvers that were necessary to keep his life intact and to keep him safe, providing the legal “hands that hold the child.”

Not only did we mediate the issues, but we drafted all of the final pleadings within the afternoon.

We then advised a legal strategy to keep the husband from acquiring or using any of the marital property for his criminal defense.  We provided legal representation to the two young adult children to serve as co-executors on their mothers probate estate and to utilize complicated laws regarding survival actions, wrongful death suits by estate representatives, homestead statutes, the deadman statute, the slayer’s statute and other esoteric but vital legal maneuvers to position the children to prevent the father from grabbing and selling half of the estate to pay for his criminal defense for the murder of their mother.

The mother’s plans for divorce were tragically ended with her death.  But it was her children’s determination that prevented a subsequent tragedy.

The mother and her actions were so detrimental to the child that the guardian ad litem recommended she only have supervised visits by the child’s therapist and only if the mother remained strictly compliant with the recommendations of the therapist.

In addition, we had obtained from the court an order requiring the mother and father to submit to psychological evaluations as part of a more comprehensive custody evaluation, often used in parenting plan disputes where mental health issues are prominent.

In this case the mother refused to finish the evaluation with the psychologist. Other than the emotional toll, the financial toll on our client was significant. The mother had gone through a half dozen attorneys, mounting one bid after another to regain custody. We were able to work our fee agreement with the client to tailor it so that we would assist him in a very limited capacity and only for the most critical matters as we headed to trial. With this tailored approach we kept the costs low and still provided enough legal “fire power” for him to protect his child through the court system.

Luckily, we were able to save his marriage in part because we were able to meet with our client and with his wife and use the marital privilege provided by Washington law to successfully prevent the opposing counsel from requiring the wife to testify against our client at trial. Her involvement and his openness about what had been happening was critical to rebuilding the trust that was deeply shaken by the events leading up to the litigation.

This case was unusual in many respects and the judge, at the end of trial, complimented us on the legal work we had done on behalf of our client. We were able to successfully defend against the most extreme requests in the anti-harassment petition. The judge ruled exactly as we had predicted after a day long trial. Typically anti-harassment petitions are heard without oral testimony and are dealt with summarily in about 30 minutes.

If you have a case where legal assistance would be beneficial because the stakes are high, we encourage you to give us a call.

She advised us that her uncle was largely destitute, had a tendency to drive her crazy and was not to be trusted. We were able to help her from afar with the use of remote technologies and were able to successfully negotiate with her uncle, preserving assets for the estate that would have otherwise been eaten up by a substantial court battle against a man who had nothing better to do than make outrageous claims and prolong the litigation at the expense and peril of our client.

Approximately one year after we had brokered the settlement, we received a card in the mail from our client announcing the birth of a new child and wishing us a hardy thank you for the work we had done to end the litigation before our client became pregnant and the stress became dangerous for her newborn.