Georgia Supreme Court -- Discipline and Family Law Cases

The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday issued 20 opinions, including 4 family law cases and 2 attorney discipline decisions.

The topic of the day for divorce cases was attempts by parties to revisit the divorce issues later. In Scott v. Scott, a party successfully sought to set aside a final judgment incorporating an agreement based on a nonamendable defect on the face of the judgment, to wit, the failure to comply with requirements of OCGA § 19-5-12 and an impermissible waiver of the right to child support, but the Supreme Court held that the agreement did not contain any defects rendering the agreement void, and having consented to the agreement and requested it be incorporated into the order, the appellee could not later attack its terms. In Jacob v. Koslow, the Supreme Court held that a party could not move for contempt of a divorce decree in a different county from where the judgment was entered, unless it were in conjunction with a motion for modification. Notably, however, a court in a different county could entertain a motion for modification plus a petition for contempt, deny the modification motion and still find the respondent in contempt.

On a different topic, the Georgia Supreme Court summarily reversed the trial court's grant of attorneys' fees in Anderson v. Svard because there was no evidence in the record of the financial circumstances of the parties under OCGA § 19-6-2.

In a termination case, In the Interest of C.S., the Georgia Supreme Court addressed what constitutes proper service under OCGA § 15-11-96(c) and § 9-11-4. Service of the petition was by certified mail on the father, who was incarcerated in Tennessee, which would be permitted under some circumstances by OCGA § 9-11-4. However, the Georgia Supreme Court held that OCGA § 15-11-96(c) governed and trumped whatever the more general service statute allowed.

The attorney discipline cases involved a voluntary suspension, and a petition for readmission.  Monique Walker was suspended for 120 days following a misdemeanor conviction for filing a fraudulent tax return, and David Judah was readmitted after 3 years, having shown that he had fulfilled the requirements (including restitution to the victims, a physical and mental examination showing he posed no threat and was fit to practice, ongoing treatment, passing the multistate professional responsibility exam and attending the Bar's Ethics School).

Comments

[Please e-mail mail me in regards to my case. It is very complicated and I'm not getting sufficient h]

I have custody of my two children in Texas, although, upon a visitation right from the Texas Divorce Decree, I have primary custody of my two children as well as exclusive rights to their jurisdictional rights to live.
I have been in court in Texas at least four times and have exemplified/certified files from the Judge in Texas for my children to be returned to me. Including Habeus Corpus, Writ of Attachment, Motion for Enforcement as well as damage expense due to his actions.
The father of my children which spent time in a Federal penitentiary failed to return my children after a visitation.
I hired an Attorney in Georgia to help me and I gave her the rest of my savings money.
She in fact did not file the brief for the appellant court in due time. Therefore, since she did not submit the brief in adequate amount of time that was given, the cas was dismmised.
I lost rights in Georgia but the Texas case is still pending because of Georgia having lack of jurisdiction.
Can you please help me get my children back from this on going case that I have been fighting for a long time.
My ex-husband moved approx. 7 times to where my children could not be found.
We have located them, but now everything is complicated to say the least.
Please call or e-mail me.
My name is Julie A. Robinson
my address is 14420 Walters Rd. #11
Houston, Texas 77014

my cell phone number is 832-875-8244
my officed number is 281-293-8746
jules7tt@yahoo.com