New Legal Issues with Payment of Attorney's Fees

I am in the process of working on a couple of new issues in payment of attorney's fees by a trial court.  One is a domestic case and one is a non-domestic which are both on appeal.  The issue is whether the court has the authority to order the payment of attorney's fees within a set time period as opposed to reducing the matter to judgment.  The legal theory is that the court is circumventing the collection of judgments as provided by statute and thus there is no authority to order the payment of attorney's fees in a set time frame (i.e you shall by by x date or face contempt).  From a preliminary look, it appears there is some rational and possible caselaw in doing this on domestic matters but nothing on non-domestic cases.  Looks like may be time to find out what the law is going to be.   

Social Security Disability

Social security cases have been getting more difficult in recent years.  Last time I remember, the national approval rating for claims is at around 24%.  Lots of this has to do with pressure on congress and thus pressure on the SSA to reduced the number of social security claimants.  It is now almost necessary to overkill on medical records to have a shot at these claims.  Additionally, it certain cases it is almost necessary to discuss with a client whether retaining an outside vocational expert may be helpful. 

Visitation BIlls of Interest

The Mississippi Legislature has two (2) bills of interest related to visitation.  HB 707 would propose to revise the grandparent visitation statute to include great-grand parents.  This is in response to a case from last year where the appellate court ruled that great grand parents do not fit within the scope of the grandparent visitation statute.  HB 2090 allows third party visitation under certain limited circumstances.  I suspect this will have a constitutional challenge at some point if the bill passes. 

Divorce Ground Legislation

House Bill 185 seeks to amend Mississippi’s divorce statute to add language that says that a divorce on habitual cruel and inhuman treatment may be granted where there is “excessive verbal, mental, psychological or emotional abuse.” This would clarify a few things.  However, from a practical standpoint under the caselaw, one can already get a divorce under this ground by proving those things.  To me the interesting issue would be how to interpret the word excessive.  Can one be a little abusive, just not excessive?  What is excessive?  I have my doubts the bill passes because any attempts to amend the divorce statute have been unsuccessful in prior years. 

Legal Humor

There is a great legal humor site called Lower the Bar.  If you have never seen it, a link is here.  It shows the lighter side of law practice.  If you want a good laugh, go to the pleadings library.  There are all kinds of actual motions in there.  My personal favorite is the notice of appeal to insult the trial judge along with the motion for fist fight. 

Developing a Theory

In medical malpractice cases, a theory of liability needs to be developed quickly.  In many cases, a good understanding of what you believe the doctor did wrong will go a long way in determining the merits of a case.  I have had several cases I have received that other attorneys turned down that ended up being very good cases where a working theory of liability is developed prior to sending the matter to an expert for review.  This lets the expert pinpoint the issues quickly to determine merit.

QDRO and Child Support Arrearages

Qualified Domestic Relations Orders are a good way to take care of child support arrearages.  Last week, I had to deal with this issue in a post-divorce matter.  The ex-spouse had a substantial child support arrearages.  There was no real dispute that there was no bank accounts or anything to pay it off with.  However, there was a substantial retirement account.  We ended up preparing a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) to remove the amount of the arrearages from the retirement account to satisfy it.  Ultimately, this ended up being a good outcome for all parties as the arrearages were satisfied and the ex-spouse was no longer in danger of incarceration.