The Judge's name is Mike Wherry. We are in Mercer County.
I filed a motion for re-instatement of child support When I asked for about
the support he smiled and said "nice try" and then chuckled. He then
looked back up from his papers and said "I don't mean to make light of your
situation, Mr. Kelly but you're not getting it". He then said is there
anything else without letting me argue my case. Unfortunately for me, I was so
dumbstruck that I didn't have a response and he quickly ended the hearing.
This happened at the same hearing where I brought up the misdeeds of the
opposing attorney and asked the Judge to do something - sanctions, whatever - to
make Joe Joseph ( opposing attorney ) follow the rules. The Judge said "I'm
not going to do that. We're lucky we have attorneys that will take divorce
cases, at all. So I'm not going to start doing that." Again, I was just
totally dumbstruck. This attorney has repeatedly file false certification of
service letters, continually mis-represents the facts in court and in motions.
For instance, he told the Judge that my income dropped from X to Y. The X
represented the combined incomes of me and the ex-wife, as well as some gains
made in the stock market. The Judge bought it without looking at the paper. This
lead to yet another continuance. This attorney wants to continue the case in
perpetuity and the Judge is willing to let him do it.
Another ruling he made that you may find interesting is this one. I am
a Certified Financial Planner. He ordered that I turn over all of my clients'
transactions for 3 years. Names, account numbers, trade dates, amount invested,
dates, prices, etc. to the opposing attorney. I was actually on the cover of
'Investment News', an industry publication for that one. I fought it for months
and the Judge was indifferent to the clients' privacy. As you can imagine, I
lost clients over that one and it has caused damage to my business - as well as
my income.
Now let me ask for information or HER - oh, boy -big mistake. I believe she
is co-habitating with her boyfriend and that they share an apartment. So I want
to know if she is and if his name is on the lease. Of course I'm not allowed to
get that information.
People think I am nuts for not having an attorney but I can't afford one
anymore. Our legal fees are in excess of $40,000. We will probably end up in
bankruptcy. There is absolutely no logic to what has happened.
I am convinced that this Judge is more concerned about the attorneys ( or
this attorney, anyway ) than the litigants. He made similar comments in a
hearing last July. I am convinced that this often quoted saying is accurate -
"It's 99% of the attorneys that give the rest of them a bad name".
I had an attorney in the beginning but we parted ways because I wrote a
letter to the president Judge asking for a change in venue. She fired me. She
repeatedly told me to be honest -"Just tell the truth". That, in
retrospect, was bad advice. Joe Joseph and his client are being rewarded for
lying and I am being punished for my honesty. This system is terribly broken and
we can only change it by throwing more money at the legislators than the
attorneys do. That's not going to happen. Judges are God. They go unchecked and
unchallenged.
