What happens if you don't pay the Family Court Mediator fees?

I went through mediation and I paid my fees. My ex appear via phone call and had two weeks to pay and hasn't paid.

Nathan’s Answer

A similarly situated ex in this situation could attempt to contact the court and structure payments, or even seek a fee waiver, but waivers in courts generally need to be applied before a mediation - sometimes, a judge may order mediation with fees for indigent clients, who are then held in contempt if they can't pay - it would be wise to explore a schedule for payment assuming the ex brings it up to the court, if she does not, she may face trouble.

What are my chances after not agreed to mediation and see lawyer for court for stop paying check to service at home that i had?

I stop my check paying this contractor after agreed and aware that there will be service charge to come to my house for an estimate and fix the problem but they did not do it, so now the contractor sue me for theft of service, went to court, judge advised to see mediation and I still did not agreed paying.

Nathan’s Answer

It appears you stopped payment on a check to a contractor for a service charge. You made an agreement then his agents came to your house with an estimate - but did not do the job. It seems like you did not pay for the service of them coming to make an estimate like you said you would, and they did give you an estimate so you may owe the contractor. If you did agree for them to come to give you an estimate, that may be all that you agreed to so you should have paid. You did not also agree to have the problem fixed. That would be a separate charge. If it was in fact a genuine misunderstanding, please give mediation another chance, unless you feel that it was a large enough amount to justify seeing a lawyer. But if the mediation is free, and you are still eligible to try mediation, it might be worth it.

Custody case at court or mediation in New York State(Suffolk County).

I and my fiance broke up in 2010 and have 4 yr old daughter.I have been the primary care giver,our daughter's father has never made any arrangement to spend time with our daughter so the other day I've mentioned about filing for petition for custody. We reached at 95% agreement for I will be the one who will be rewarded for physical custody. I read the court website and found out about mediation, In NY State would I be asked to choose either file to the court or go to the mediation when I file at the family court(I was suggested to go to the probation department for filing) or Do I have to mention when I file? I would like to solve with less cost and fast. We agree with the most, but I am very worried about it and I appreciate any advises for my situation. Thank you for your time and help.

Nathan’s Answer

A good strategy usually employed by individuals situated in a similar situation is to try mediation out, and see if the other side will give you what you want. If you don't get what you want, court is always there. While I am licensed in CA and am thus unsure of the NY family mediation process, be aware that fees may be associated with mediation even if it fails. But mediation may show the court you tried to resolve all issues amicably. You should be lauded for getting up to 95% agreement so far. Good luck.

I am going to mediation for a credit card lawsuit, what are the chances they will settle for 1500?

The alleged debt is over 10,000, to file bankrutpcy all my fees would be about 1,500. Would it be advisable to say the following in mediation "If I file bankruptcy it will cost be 1,500 and you will get nothing since I have no...

Nathan’s Answer

Whenever one is confronted with a debt lawsuit, they should probably ensure that the debt collection attempts have all complied with the law. If not, this would provide ammunition for an individual in mediation to argue that because the creditor did not properly file suit, or file suit in a timely manner, the debtor would be happy to go to court, if the other side did not accept their offer, since the debtor is confident they would not have to pay anything at all. This assumes one had competent representation, or at the very least, was familiar with what defects, if any, existed in the complaint and already prepared that in the answer, or sought leave to amend their answer.

Now if the creditor did not accept the money offered by the debtor, and wanted more, and if the debtor stuck to their position so that the creditor insisted on trial, which they may to seek a conviction, which would go a long way in being able to indeed collect their alleged debt by various mechanisms, pulling the bankruptcy card sounds like it could be appropriate - but one would want to be prepared to follow with that bankruptcy as a creditor would possibly keep at it until they got what they sought. Be aware that the creditors may sense that a debtor is bluffing in this instance, so if one really couldn't pay more than $1,500, the debtor would probably want to focus most of their energies on being very straightforward and curt in the negotiation - One could imagine an exchange where the debtor repeatedly stated "this is all I have, the only other way is bankruptcy" over and over, so that the creditor realized they had no room to negotiate.

Thus the burden of deciding whether to move forward to trial would be on them, and if the creditor is risk-averse, or happy to receive the $1,500, the case will be done. In order to maximize one's chances of "winning" in mediation, one may want to start at a lower price point than $1,500 to test the waters, before finally stopping their negotiation at $1,500. Then again, it could also be wise to just hit the point. To indicate a debtor's savvy, a debtor may want to ask the creditor how much they would sell the debt to someone else for, if the debt collected ended up being zero due to imminent bankruptcy.