Injustice at it’s Best in Fulton County
I’m writing this blog to detail my child support modification experience and to expose the unfair injustice I received from the Honorable Judge Cynthia Wright with the Fulton County Superior Family Court.
Since the final judgment of my child support modification hearing, I went online to research Judge Cynthia Wright to try and get a better understanding of the type of judge that represents the Fulton County Family Court System. Based on my circumstances versus the outcome of my case, my gut feelings were I’d find several unfavorable cases judged by Cynthia Wright. My gut feelings turned out to be 100% right!! Keep reading…
First, let me set the tone by saying there are always exceptions to the rule. For all the negative feedback I found on Judge Wright, there was an exception to the rule of someone that actually lauded her performance as a competent judge. Click Here to go to the Fulton County Court Forum and read some of the negative feedback other people had to say about the illustrious Judge Cynthia Wright. The following is an excerpt from the forum which makes total sense:
“Cynthia Wright is a radical feminist who is using her position to impose her radical views upon the citizens of Georgia. It is publicly documented that she is a lesbian. The Fulton County family court psychologist is also a lesbian hired by Wright. In 2002, Wright was actually shot by her lesbian lover. Check the Atlanta Journal archives for that story. She hired a public relations firm to try and cover the story but the truth came out. I have personally been witness to multiple cases that were judged by Wright and it is clear to me she is completely biased against men in divorce cases. I have seen men who were fine fathers and completely beyond reproach treated like they meant nothing to their children. Go and witness a family law case for yourself and report back here.”
After reading my Child Support Modification Story, you’ll understand why this makes sense. If you’re a man that has to go before Judge Wright, you need to be prepared. The one thing that I’ve learned after the fact is to have your case heard by a jury. If you let Judge Wright decide based on the facts and she is the sole decision maker, it’s “game over” for you my friend.
My divorce was finalized in June of 2008. To try and save time, aggravation and money, we settled our case in front of a moderator. The nuts and bolts of the agreement are as follows:
My child support for two minor children (I have 10 year old twin girls) was set at $2,000 a month. My alimony was set at $1,200 for the first 12 months and $600 for the following 12 months. I was responsible for our private health insurance of $470 and 60% of the out of pocket medical expenses that averaged over $100 per month for the first 12 months.
All in all, my out of pocket net proceeds that I needed to pay my obligations were $3,800 (that figure is actually rounded down somewhat). Or to put it another way, I needed to gross $4,900 a month or a yearly salary of $58,000 just to pay my obligations. At the time of the divorce my income was computed at $8,333 a month which was somewhat inflated due to proceeds I received from a family business. My expenses for rent, car payment, insurance, gas, food, and miscellaneous expenses were about $2,500 per month. The $3,800 plus my expenses totaled about $6,300 a month which would be extremely tight. I was banking on all the planets staying in perfect alignment from all my income sources to keep that figure in the same ball park for at least one year.
Unfortunately, the stars and the moon didn’t cooperate with my desires and within 60 days after my divorce was finalized, I lost 40% of my income overnight. So let’s do the math…40% of $8,333 is $5,000 gross. $5,000 gross equates to about $4,000 net per month. I lost $2,400 a month in take home pay. I was just barely getting by; a reduction of $3,300 of income would soon take it’s toll. If my child support, alimony, insurance, and out of pocket medical expenses ran $3,800, that left me with $200 to live on. Or to put it another way, for every dollar I took home, I had to give my ex wife .95. How fair is that??
In order to make ends meet, I had to cash advance all my credit cards to the sum of over $70,000 in credit card debt. I also sold my shares of a family business to liquidate all my assets in order to keep my obligations current. I was able to stay current with everything for about 6 months before I was totally broke.
In December of 2008 my brother said that he would loan me the money to get an attorney so I could get my child support modified. When we met the attorney and gave him all the facts of my situation, he said that this should be an easy case for modification based on my 40% reduction in income. He said that based on the work involved to file the correct paperwork and all the other duties that needed to be done for this modification, the fee would be $7,500. He also said that based on the child support guidelines of Georgia, my child support would go down between $600 and $1,200 per month.
Before I continue with the story, I just wanted to interject something here that I feel is relevant. Earlier I mentioned about my income “sources” that amounted to my total gross income. At the time of my divorce I had three streams of income. My primary job was selling cars for a car dealer here in Atlanta. My second source was from a family business. My third source was from a part time job working for the Atlanta Journal Constitution delivering papers in the middle of the night that I took on a few years earlier to get some extra Christmas money and bring more money to the table since my ex wife didn’t work. With mounting financial problems and the need for additional income, I’m forced to keep the part time job with the Atlanta Journal.
My point in bringing this up is simply this; I’m not a “dead beat” dad (my ex wife calls me that all the time because I don’t pay her all the money on the 1st of the month) that’s trying to dist my obligations. My job in the car business is very demanding and stressful. 70 hour work weeks are not uncommon, and then getting up every morning at 2:30am to deliver newspapers 7 days a week makes my work load seem daunting. On top of that, since we separated almost three years ago, I’ve paid my ex wife the equivalent of a $60,000 a year salary in support, and she still has the audacity to call me a dead beat.
My court date was April 29, 2009 at the Fulton County Court House with the Honorable Judge Cynthia Wright. There were actually two hearings that day for me. One was the modification hearing and the other was a contempt order for not paying opposing council attorney fees of $1,500 from a previous separation agreement. My goal was to get my child support reduced so I could make arrangements to repay my ex wife’s attorney.
Going to court that day I felt confident that justice would be served. I didn’t think the best case scenario of getting my support lowered by $1,200 was possible but $800 a month seemed reasonable. And according to the child support guidelines of Georgia, a $800 reduction fit. I thought the worst case scenario was a $300 reduction.
I was the first one on the stand and my lawyer seemed to ask all the right questions to lay out the facts of the case. My income went down 40% or about $3,300 a month…a no brainier right?
Opposing council’s argument for not modifying my child support was that my alimony was going down $600 as of June 1st and I was paying $320 less for health insurance for the girls. According to opposing council’s figures, I was already getting a 30% reduction in my obligations so a modification was not necessary.
I think my lawyer could have done a better job countering opposing council’s reasons not to modify my support. First of all, the 30% figure opposing council stated was wrong. It was only 24% and he didn’t catch the miss statement. Secondly, he didn’t do a simple calculation of my income versus my expenses. I have rent to pay, a car payment, food, gas, auto insurance, and miscellaneous expenses totaling about $2500 per month. With my expenses and my child support/alimony obligations I needed to take home $6,300 a month.
That’s a $8,000 a month job, and since I was only making $5,000 a month something needed to give. On top of that, my take home pay was only $4,000 and I was paying $3,800 in total obligations leaving me with only $200 to live on. The big reduction in opposing council’s argument would put an additional $600 in my pocket, but living on $800 a month is still unreasonable.
With all the facts on the table Judge Wright seemed to buy opposing council’s argument (based on the above comment about Judge Wrights sexual orientation, maybe opposing council and Judge Wright have more in common than meets the eye). She denied any modification and her famous last words were, “A deals a deal, and I’m not modifying this agreement.”
When Judge Wright announced her decision, I felt my blood pressure going through the roof. I wanted to unload on her but I knew I wind up in jail and that would just cost more money and time. Besides she almost had me thrown in jail for the contempt order anyway. She gave me four days to come up with the $1,500 to pay opposing council, or I would have gone to jail.
Losing the case was unfathomable to me. It was a total injustice and a living example of the incompetency and bias decision making process of Judge Cynthia Wright. The mission statement of the Fulton County Court says, “To provide the citizens of Fulton County, customers of court services, and practicing professionals the highest level of justice (equality and fairness) in a timely and economical manner.”
The highest level of justice equality and fairness? I guess I don’t have a good grasp on what justice, equality and fairness represent. If this case represented those three virtues, I’d hate to see what one of Judge Wright’s cases looks like without the trio of qualities she stands by.
Unfortunately for me, losing this case was just part of the overall equation of how I got raped by “the system.” Earlier I mentioned that my attorney quoted a price of $7,500 to handle the child support modification case. Now keep in mind, the contempt hearing was an add on but it sure couldn’t have equated to $10,000 worth of work. No, that’s not a misprint. The total bill from my attorney was $17,701. In other words, I spent $17,701 for absolutely nothing…nadda…zilch!
Even in the worst case scenario of getting my obligation reduced by $300, it would have taken a little less than 5 years to recoup the money. I could have gone to Vegas and had a better chance of a return on investment than the outcome of my case.
And wait, there’s “insult to injury” here as well. When I got the final order from the court, it was adjudged that I pay an additional $5,000 for opposing council’s attorney’s fees (between the divorce, the original separation agreement, and this modification attempt, I’m paying opposing council at total of $8,500). How’s that for a slap in the face? Not only do I have to pay my attorney $17,701 for nothing, I have to pay opposing council’s attorney fees of $5,000.
And there’s still more sports fans! Since I didn’t pay my ex wife the required child support and alimony amount on the 1st day of May the required amount of $3,200, she had me served with another contempt order. The divorce decree states that I have to pay the $3,200 on the first of every month. So technically, I’m in contempt if I don’t pay on the first of the month. That in of itself was reason for modification. The way I get paid, I’ll never have that sum of money on the first day of the month (or $2,600 now that the alimony went down $600).
The court date was set for the end of May but both attorneys had a conflict and the court date is rescheduled for a later date which at this point I’m still waiting to hear. I’ll keep you posted on any further developments, which could be from the Fulton County Jail House!
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