Legal Question in Family Law in California
I pay spousal support to my ex and recently stopped having an attorney and decided to represent myself to correspond with my ex's attorney. There is a QUADRO that has been filed and my ex's attorney said that I would receive the filed, signed copy, which I have not. I have sent numerous emails and even made a phone call to her regarding this matter, in addition to some spousal support matters (my pay is normally garnished every week, however, I was off for two weeks last month, and I had to mail two weeks worth of checks to the ex's attorney, because I was not paid through my employer for that time off). Long story short . . . I have made numerous attempts to correspond with the ex's attorney by emails, postal mail, and phone calls, and the attorney does not care to acknowledge my attempts to communication. My questions is . . . Is it my right to file some kind of complaint through the Court? Thank you.
2 Answers from Attorneys
No attorney has any obligation to communicate with the other side unless it is in their client's interest to do so, or it would be harmful to their client's interests not to (similar but not quite exactly the same thing). Furthermore, unless you have formally fired your attorney and filed a substitution removing your attorney and making you a pro se party with the court, it would be a major violation of the rules of professional conduct and the State Bar Act if the attorney did NOT ignore you. It is TOTALLY prohibited for a lawyer to communicate with a party who has an attorney of record. So not only do you have no right to complain to the court or anyone, it is you who it sounds like is acting improperly by conduct that might induce the attorney to violate his or her professional duties.
Assuming you have completed the proper steps to be self represented and have ended your attorney client relationship with your old attorney, opposing counsel has a responsibility to meet and confer on legitimate issues concerning the case and the attorney may be in violation of local rules in this regard.
Your best bet would be to send a meet and confer letter to opposing counsel telling him what you're trying to reach him about and in the letter giving him a deadline to respond. If he fails to respond within the timetable you've given him, a return to court seeking sanctions and compliance with your request would be appropriate.
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