Through the World Barefooted -- Gerda's LBS Guide

[Gerda]

Thanks, Sage and Cardinal! It wrote itself, in a way.

DnJ, I am not sure I could have done it without you. You became a black belt in LBS right away, but hopefully I made the walk a little more fun and a little more laden with poetic meaning!

Here is a crazy update.

I had court today, via zoom. I actually had court last week but I insist every time that there is a court reporter there to record it and every time they end up having to adjourn because they don't have one and I insist. Now that I always have a transcript, I am able to hold the judge accountable for things she said and also to force H's L to lie less.

So anyway today was the rescheduled appt. Last week only the court attorney came and tried to get me to back down about the reporter. This week the judge came, opens the meeting by saying,"Well, you insisted you wanted me here, so what did you want to talk about?"

I had filed an OSC three months ago to get her to enforce an order from last October that forced H to appraise the house and let me buy him out. Granted, it's Covid, so I can't get a loan for that until our rents return,but I wanted to get everything settled and give him a downpayment somehow. The order doesn't say how long I have to pay him, so I was just going with that.

The judge did not make a decision or even read my documentation.Nor did she make a decision on their OSC, which tried to strip me of all my rights, overturn the first order, etc. She got us to agree to split the cost of the appraisal that was supposed to be paid for by H. But after the hearing, they tried to make me pay for the whole thing. So I drafted a global resolution to settle every open issue and define the payout schedule for the buyout, which was three payments over the next three years, and which mentioned our mutual desire to let D11 finish at her local middle school before any forced move, should I not be able to refinance in full by then and have to sell in order to pay H. It was a compromise, as I plan to go for sole use til 18 if we go to trial.

Well, they redlined EVERYTHING, even the give-away line that said that the appraisal would be used to determine the equity.

So I told them, you can do the appraisal as per the court order from last October and pay for it yourself. I am not splitting it or paying for anything unless I have in writing that it's being used to fulfill the order or at minimum to determine the equity. They refused to agree to that so I I filed another OSC a month ago, asking that the judge rule on my first one. The Ex Parte office was like, "Whaaa? People don't do that and she probably won't sign, as your other OSC is scheduled to be heard already." I told them, "Believe me, she is not planning to hear any arguments or make a decision. I want to pay the filing fee and show her I am serious about getting a ruling on this." And she signed it.

So that's what we were doing today.

It was the usual scream festival, she hadn't read any of the docs and didn't know what was going on or what the issues were. H was off screen and she asked that he get on screen, so he said he had to go and get his computer, and stayed on audio for a while during the first round of lies from his lawyer and dazed confusion and yelling from the judge. She kept threatening to send us to trial and I kept saying, "I agree, we need to go to trial. Please refer us." And then H appears finally on the screen, and I had my trusty paper doll shirt to cover his face so I wouldn't have to look at him or his dyed blond hair transplant (or sad crazy eyes, he looks so weird), and then I saw that he was EATING A BOWL OF CEREAL. He was sitting at a kitchen table chowing down. I looked at the judge and she didn't say anything, and I was so astonished, I forgot that I wasn't just at home and that I wasn't allowed to have a phone in the hearing, and I took a photo of the screen.

Well, the judge went CRAZY, screaming at me that I wasn't allowed to record, what do you think you are doing, etc. I apologized and said I wanted to record that moment but I forgot I wasn't allowed to have it and would delete it right away but she just screamed, "No, this is illegal! You can't do that! I'm leaving!" And LEFT THE MEETING. So it was just me and H on the screen. So I left.

So I guess we are finally going to be allowed to go to trial!