Your source for the Pro Se Self-Help Guidebook Series of books.
 

New Developments & Additions

How To Defend Yourself In
Contempt Of Court Hearings

 All Items on this page were edited and contributed by the author in further support of his books. You are encouraged to read "all" of them as they will have application in your cases. Even if you live in another state, you can use them in your state case cite searches by finding "keywords" in the cites you can use when doing your searches. These cites give you valuable hints as to the terminology used by the legal profession.

Note: Visitors to this webpage are invited to send any information to the author that you feel would be appropriate to add to this page. in care of:

• Writ of Habeas Corpus sample document for CA.
  • Sample document for FL
• Florida Bar Family Law Section - Commentator Newsletter Issues. Good tips on handling your case. Check the various issues.

• Florida Statutes Annotated which gives caselaw cites that are related to various aspects of alimony. Use this as a guide to what you can do in your state.

  • F.S. 61.08 - Alimony
  • F.S. 61.14 - Cohabitation

Related legal assistance links can be seen by clicking here.  

• 09/10/08 - Recognition And Enforcement Of Matrimonial Judgments Decrees And Orders In The United States And Foreign Countries
• 09/10/08 - Caught Net - exposes judges, judicial misconduct, prosecutorial misconduct, legal misconduct, ethics violations and civil rights violations and more. There are some tactics you can use in court if you have problems with judges.
• 09/01/08 - How to Remove a Judge From Your Case: Here is an excerpt from the Florida Rules of Judicial Administration.
  • Kay v. Kay, 3D08-1776 Aug08 - A case where the judge was disqualified by ruling on a disqualification.
• 08/18/08 - SIMPSON v. SIMPSON, 700 So.2d 170 (Fla.App. 4 Dist. 1997) (holding that "Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.440(c)shall govern general provisions concerning setting an action for trial in family law matters").
• 08/16/08 - GIBSON v. BENNETT, 561 So.2d 565 (Fla. 1990) - How the court redefines the meaning of a debt in order to throw you in Debtor's Prison for not paying alimony.
• 08/16/08 - WENDEL v. WENDEL, 875 So.2d 820 (Fla.App. 2 Dist. 2004) - This case discusses erroneous imputation of income and a one-time payment of a purge amount is no indication of an ability to pay.
• 08/02/08 - Read this article in the following newsletter: All Parties Should Have Input Into The Content Of Proposed Orders Before They Are Submitted To The Court
• 08/01/08 - Introduction to Basic Legal Citation - excellent site to explain the legal "language" you will encounter.
• 07/25/08 - More on the loyalty oath - Here is a Writ of Quo Warranto used to challenge a judges authority to sit upon the bench. This case shows that the challenge to the judge should be early in the proceedings and should be done in the lower courts...not the appellate courts. In Florida, statistics have shown that the majority of judges have not signed this oath.
• 07/24/08  - Judges Contempt Checklist
• 07/17/08 - Mathematics for Imputing Income - A Florida Bar Journal article.
• 05/30/08 - In the event your judge won't allow spectators - Request that spectators be allowed to observe the proceedings at your hearing in accordance with Florida Family Law Rules of Proceure RULE 12.400 which states:
  CONFIDENTIALITY OF RECORDS AND PROCEEDINGS
  In the Commentary Adopted in 1995, it says Judicial proceedings and records should be public except when substantial compelling circumstances, especially the protection of children or of business trade secrets, require otherwise. Family law matters frequently present such circumstances. It is intended that this rule be applied to protect the interests of minor children from offensive testimony and to protect children in a divorce proceeding. [Note: it is good to have a court reporter attend at the same time.]
• 04/19/08 - Free Case Law Databases
• 04/10/08 - We’re Back: The Appellate Court Said You Didn’t Find Anything - Florida Bar article on appeals and lack of findings of fact by the trial court.
• 03/27/08 - Investigative Techniques To Prove Your Ex Is Cohabitating
• 3/23/06 - Florida Statute 798.02 - Adultery & Co-habitation is a crime.
• 03/06/08 - The Art of War by Sun Tzu - The oldest treatise on war in the world. Some of the lessons taught can be used in your alimony battle.
• 03/01/08 -  Citizens for Legal Responsibility - Lot of interesting articles on this site and some with legal considerations for cases with which you might be involved.
• 02/08/08 - Loyalty Oath - Use this to disqualify your judge. Here is a letter from an attorney showing significance of checking this. It applies to all judges at all levels.
• 01/25/08 - Fraudulent Paystubs - Be aware of this software that could be used to falsify financial affidavits supporting documents. Unless cross-checked with tax returns, they could probably successfully be used by one of the parties to deceive the other party.
• 01/20/08 - Domestic Violence - A tactic frequently used in family law cases. Find out how to handle accusations of DV.
• 01/19/08 - Four Secrets of the Legal Industry - This is a must read article for you.
• 01/18/08 - Convert your word processing documents to PDF.
• 1/1/8/08 - Civil Contempt Changed To Criminal Contempt In Support. Here's a article with a concept on ambiguities in the statute that might help you in your support case.
• 01/14/08 - Free Legal Dictionaries website has been added that contains multiple dictionaries for you to use.
• 12/20/07 - Antipeonage Website - We can define being forced to work to pay alimony as "peonage." Want to include this tactic in your court documents or arguments? The Antipeonage Act of 1867, 42 U.S.C. §1994, reads:    "The holding of any person to service or labor under the system known as peonage is abolished and forever prohibited in any Territory or State of the United States; and all acts, laws, resolutions, orders, regulations, or usages of any Territory or State, which have heretofore established, maintained, or enforced, or by virtue of which any attempt shall hereafter be made to establish, maintain, or enforce, directly or indirectly, the voluntary or involuntary service or labor of any persons as peons, in liquidation of any debt or obligation, or otherwise, are declared null and void." (Note - even though it appears to define alimony, the courts will probably dismiss this argument as it has been used before without much success along with the "involuntary servitude" argument. Click here for summary.)
• 11/04/07 - Florida Law Update: Revisions to Alimony Statute
• 10/09/07 - Motion template to use in defense against sanctions for a frivolous motion
• 10/07/07 - When ex-husbands get alimony: A woman who is the primary breadwinner in her marriage could wind up paying support after a divorce. And sometimes she should, lawyers contend.
• 10/06/07 - Tactics to use in contempt hearings: The concept is interesting but has not been verified. Use this at your own risk
• 10/06/07 - Esaw v. Esaw, 2D06-1163 (Fla. App. 2 Dist 2007) - Look at this case indicating the importance of having had a court reporter at the trial court proceedings. Also, the imputation of income to the spouse aspect.
• 09/27/07 - For those of you who are unable to afford some software programs such as MS Word, MS Office, etc., there are other options. The most widely used alternative to Office is an open-source program called OpenOffice, which is sponsored by Sun Microsystems. OpenOffice tries to match all the major features of Microsoft's program.
  
  There are a variety of Web-based programs that can replace all or parts of the Office programs, including ThinkFree Office Online, word processor Writely, spreadsheet maker NumSum, and e-mail program Thunderbird. All of this software is significantly less expensive that Microsoft Office -- it's absolutely free.
  
  OpenOffice can read files created in Microsoft Office, and it can create new files that Office can open. So, ideally, you could take home spreadsheets created at work using Excel, and work on them on your home computer without having to buy Office. 
• 09/25/07 - Understanding the difference between alimony and support.
• 09/23/07 - Considerations in the use of vocational experts
• 09/23/07 -  The Case Against Expert Witnesses - Want to win a lawsuit? Just call an all-purpose expert. For a fee, you can find one to ''prove'' almost anything. Judges are starting to rebel.