Legal Question in Family Law in Missouri

My ex-husband filed to amend part of our divorce paperwork. He filed to be residential parent for our son. He originally went to my district. The original court date paperwork was sent by a server to my address. The first date was continued by his attorney. I let my attorney go already because I was already at $5,000 and over two years since I filed and the case was still not closed. I was going to argue the latest amendment on my own. My son came home from school with paperwork that he was unenrolled from my district and he said he would be going to another school. I checked out case net and my court date was the day before. I was never notified of the new date. The paperwork his lawyer filed had my service info for a attorney that I have never worked with. That's why I didn't get my new date. My ex also new that I didn't know about the new court date because he kept on making sure I would be at my sons Christmas party at school which was the same date and time as court. The district he is sending him to he doesn't even live there anyways. My ex is using his mothers address. I need to cancel the motion and get a new date for this can be taken care of. I need to know what paper to file to do this. I will have a new attorney in February, but I cannot retain one till then. My son even voices that he wants to stay where he is and the district I had him in is scored higher than the one his dad enrolled him in.


Asked on 1/10/14, 11:57 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

Anthony Smith LawSmith

It sounds like you need to file a motion to set aside the alteration. Your grounds are that you weren't given notice of the Hearing. These rarely succeed without an attorney, so you might need to get the February attorney now.

Good luck

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Answered on 1/10/14, 12:35 pm
Jennifer Rench J. Rench Law Firm, LLC | St. Louis Divorce and Mediation

You could explore the option of filing a Motion to Set Aside, but be aware that there are different hurdles you have to overcome depending on if you file it within 30 days of the date of the Judgment or if you file it after 30 days. It is much harder to get a Judgment set aside if you wait longer than 30 days. If you wait longer than the 30 days you could still explore a Motion to Set Aside or a Motion to Modify, but again they have such different elements that you must prove that it is impossible from a forum like this that any attorney could advise you what you need to file. It is really in your best interest to find a way to retain an attorney now because of your particular time crunch.

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Answered on 1/13/14, 9:11 am


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