Kitty Crutcher’s Legal Blog

I saw an article in the Houston Chronicle about a women in Illinois that is in a custody battle, because the father of her child says her disability keeps her from careing for her child. A little background on this case. The mother while serving in the navy was knocked from a balcony during a huricane and left as a quadriplegic. This happened more than a decade ago. She cannot walk, move her fingers independently, or feel anything from the chest down. Last December she found out she was preganant and now has a five month old son. The father of the baby, a lawyer, states that she is not up to the challenge. Now I have a real problem with this. Most people who know me know that I have a muscle and nerve disease and that I have two children and a grandchild. To say that her disability prevents her from taking care of her child is wrong. Of course he can’t claim this is the only reason because then it would be discrimination. This is a mother who makes over 90k a year and has continous help, her brother lives next door, plus a live in caretaker is there to assist her with the child. Which I believe is no different then a live in nanny. Here is my other problem, this man knew that she was disabled, he is a lawyer so I would assume he knows where babys come from, he conceived a child with a woman who was disabled, now he wants to claim she is unfit. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Will keep you updated.

I just received an opinion from the 14th Court of Appeals overturning a Judges decision to sanction a party by firing their lawyer. They didn’t want to fire the lawyer, but the Judge was so upset with the tactics of the lawyer that he sanctioned them by telling them to get a new lawyer. Sorry your honor, you can’t do that. While I agree with the Court the tactics of the lawyer warranted sanctions our code does not allow the Court to fire a lawyer because he abused the discovery process. You have a right to the counsel of your choice. As long as that attorney is in good standing with the bar then you can use them, but becareful and review what your attorney does. You are the one who has to pay the sanctions. In this case the attorney sent out over 31000 request for admissions and over 1000 request for production. It was definitely frivolous and unnecessary, while the attorney may have had a reason it was not appropriate. Especissaly not serving them on an attorney at one time. You see we only have thirty days to answer what the attorney stated took him five weeks to draft. The moral of the story is that you should always know what is going on in your case and be comfortable with what your attorney is doing.

It is that time of the year when the number of divorces start to rise. Christmas is over and the bills are arriving and the tempers are flaring. Don’t get swept up in the drama of it all. There is no need to stay in a marriage that makes you feel blue or worse yet makes you feel violent or ill. Thats when you know it is time to leave and seek the advice of the professionals. I know in these hard economic times that it is probably weighing on your mind that you can do it yourself. Well I can tell you we go to school along time to learn how to do what we do and a do it yourself guide to divorce is not going to help you. In fact it will cost you longer in the end. It is easier to just call an attorney and let them handle everything. A good attorney takes on your stress for you. Allows you to do what you need to do in your everyday life and handles all the drama of it all for you. So don’t let the holiday blues get to you if your marriage is over then give us a call let us walk you through the process and go over with you all the pros and cons of filing for a divorce.

When a person files for divorce or receives notice that a divorce has been filed it starts a roller coaster of emotions. In some cases, very rare, it gives a person a since of relief. When faced with these emotions it would be easy for a person to crawal into bed and never want to get up. Especially, when the person has been married for quite a few years. One must avoid the easy way out, you should not give up. You have spent a lifetime devoted to the other party and when it ends it is devastating, but you must get up everyday and move forward. While I know it is hard it still must be done. You can no longer allow the other person to control your destiny. You must take back that control. It is hard to do, but you do it by getting up each morning and going on with your life. For attorneys it is sometimes easy to forget the emotions and the fact that our clients sometimes need more than legal advice they need someone to listen. I try not to lose site of that feeling. I have been on that roller coaster and I can say it does get easier. The most imprtant thing is that you must feel comfortable with your choice of attorneys and if you are not then it may be best to seek a new attorney. I would live to be that attorney. If yoou need an attorney that is available for you and that will listen to what you have to say then please give me a call I would love to help you out.

Well it seems another sports star has fallen from grace. Tiger Woods after crashing his car and attempting to keep private a matter between him and his wife only made it worse. Now it has come to light that he has had numerous affairs and the crash was related to his wife finding out. Unfortunatley, this is an all to comon occurance. For some reason people feel the need to test the saying “The grass is always greeneer on the other side.” Well it may look greener for awhile, but when the truth comes out the grass turns brown real quick. But while it may look good on television and make the talk shows as around of jokes, it is never advisable to go after someone with a golf club or any other object. This will land you in jail not on television, unless it is the six o clock news. Don’t get abusive get even, hire a divorce lawyer and let the court determine if his/her actions warrant you being given a bigger piece of the community pie. So if you find yourself in this position don’t yell fore, instead call for a divorce attorney.