Urgent need for input re. my decision to appeal--

[stuckinbetween]

The following is the legal opinion on what is most solid to present to an appeals court regarding the Final Judgement (FJ):

The most rock solid appealable issue in your case is the Court did not address any of the factors that by law he must in 61.08.  This is clear throughout the FJ.  He did not address the claim for Uneven Distribution, at all.  He didn’t deny it or grant it; nothing was said.  The Court must address every claim in the pleadings that were argued at the trial (obviously if not argued then it is waived), and we argued Health Insurance, Life insurance, Personal expenses paid by the business, Equitable Distribution of the assets, the money that was provided to the business from marital funds, the $165K in capital, his lifestyle, etc.

What I believe is a not so solid argument is the Due Process claim.  That will be a collateral argument because I can’t prove the Court did not actually read the Transcripts of your testimony and Tiffany’s.  I can only accuse him of it since the record does not reflect any of your testimony even the name change.

OK, that's her legal opinion.  A case like mine just got handed down from the same DCA (district court of appeals) in Fla. where my case was heard.  The case was very similar to mine in that the couple had previously a very comfortable lifestyle, but the husband's business went belly up in the recession.  He'd briefly held another job for $52K, but got laid off and was currently unemployed.  The exh had the $52K imputed to him as income.  The wife was awarded only $100 per mo. in alimony which the DCA found to be "woefully inadequate and beyond the pale."  She was 49, her exh was 52 and she wasn't disabled.  Like my case, the trial court hadn't produced findings of fact to support the alimony award.  It remanded the case back to the same trial court to fix it.

In my case no income was imputed to exh.  Though he said he loved his job, expected to continue in it for many years, had no health concerns that would prevent his working, and said he could make(was making) $2500 per day consulting with a company in S. Africa, the court only considered his reported tax income of $4700 last year and his $1750 per mo. in social security retirement income.  The evidence showed that he spends and pays off in full $5K to 8K per mo. on each of 2 credit cards.  One is to provide for his extraordinary health insurance bills, or so he says.  He also has high out of pocket med. expenses.  While his business is said to be insolvent, he has $165K sitting in capital.

Does anyone have any knowledge of or experiences with cases being remanded back to the original trial courts?  Do they just come back with "findings" to justify their puny awards, or through in an extra $50 a mo. in alimony?  If anyone has info, please help me out here since I have very little time in which to file an appeal.  The trial judge believes my exh has no ability to pay in spite of what he testified to.

Information and mental clarity are what I desparately need here.

Stuckinbetween

[Vinnie]

Stuckinbetween,

I've been wondering how you're doing lately. Your post in February about the court decision affected me a lot. I've been in total despair over a lot less than that.  I've been praying for you.

Have you gotten any clarity on your decision to appeal?

Vinnie

[ForeverDad]

I had always thought you should have basis to appeal and so I wouldn't tell you not to try.  I suspect that since many cases are settled and most of those that go to trial are never appealed then the judge figures the odds are you're not going to appeal either.

Also, I would go ahead and proceed on both claim categories.  Even if one is weak, it gives the appeals court something to ignore if they so choose.

As your lawyer probably already told you, any information that wasn't presented in court - and thus presumably "on the record" - can't be used in an appeal.  At least that's my understanding.  It's one of those technicalities that works against us, also too probably a reason judges try to discuss a lot of stuff in lawyer-judge 'conferences' and not when they're on the record.

Same goes for your appeal deadline.  The courts are very strict about that technicality too.  Make sure it's submitted in time.  Do you need a different lawyer to file the appeal?