Legal Question in Constitutional Law in California
Legal action after a continuance
I was recently supposed to go to court on a child support issue. My ex hired a lawyer a week before the court date and the lawyer called me and asked if I would grant her a continuance. I said no only because of my ex not being willing to cooperate for the last 6 months on this forcing me to take her to court. The lawyer told me that she would be going in ex-parte and requesting a continuance which she got. However, she did not notify me of her results. It is now past the date of the original court date and I still have not received any notice from the lawyer on when the new court date is. Why is this an issue? I live 500 miles away from my daughter and the court room where I was supposed to be. If I had not called the court about it I would have shown up and there would have been no court date for me. Do I have any legal recourse against that lawyer for not notifying me of the change? Is there a law stating how much time notice the lawyer has to give when a continuance is granted. I would think that the lawyer would have to notify me of the change before the original date had past.
Thank you for you time.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Legal action after a continuance
Had you made the trip on the originally-scheduled date, the lawyer would be subject to sanctions equal to your costs and lost earnings for the trip. Because you found out about it in time to avoid these losses, there is no harm to you. Sanctions are generally intended to redress financial losses and not to provide a windfall.
You are correct, though, that the lawyer is supposed to give you notice of the new date. That notice may be in the mail, especially if the new date is far down the road. Your best bet is to call the lawyer and ask her when the new date will be and point out that you have not received notice.
You could sit back and do nothing, but then a new hearing might be held in your absence which would potentially create a serious mess for you to clean up later. You would be eligible for sanctions if the reason you miss the hearing is due to the other side's failure to give notice, but the sanctions are not guaranteed and would only compensate you for your expenses and lost income, so you really don't have anything to gain by doing this.
If the lawyer isn't cooperative, you should also be able to get the date from the court.
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