Literacy Narrative: Draft 2

RAsheda Young

Basic Writing Theory & Pedagogy

April 9, 2013

Literacy Narrative: Draft 2

How Learning to Write and Speak Legalese Saved Malik

            I’ve always been known for being a strong woman.  I could take on anything.  My mother taught me to smile even during my darkest moments.  I have been smiling a lot.  Behind the smile though stands a tall woman afraid of failing, disappointing her family, and afraid of disappointing her children, but I still keep moving.  I move by the promise that even though I’m dealing with the most litigious person I know, my efforts to save my son will be rewarded.  In the beginning of this awful ordeal, I was not as confident in my own ability to advocate for myself or fill out the copious amounts of paperwork that go along with getting a court hearing. Once I learned how to read and write like a lawyer, saving Malik became easier.

            My son Malik is five years old.  He’s outgoing, smart, caring, a brat, attention seeking and one of the joys of my life.  His father and I weren’t together long enough for my spirit to discern that the core of him is not a good person.  I left him after years of intimidation and obsessive control.  During our relationship I was convinced that he wanted to destroy me.  Now that we aren’t together, I am more convinced.  However things weren’t always so volatile.  There was a moment when I thought we would get married and live the rest of our lives together.  Wrong.  His controlling and verbally abusive tendencies began eating at my spirit.  I began to take on his issues and make them mine.  I lived this way for three and a half years.

            When I finally got the courage to leave my son’s father, I called my father to help me move and to load my things into a U-Haul truck.  He did.  He brought his piece with him too. “RA, if that jerk puts his hands on you, I’m going to use my pistol.”  I just looked at my dad.  He was serious.  He had enough, so did I.  For about three hours we loaded my things in the U-haul truck that waited outside in the driveway.  I wanted to be quick.  Malik was coming home soon. I wanted to get out of there before he came home.  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.  All of  my things weren’t out of the house before Malik returned.  I wasn’t worried though.  He wasn’t abusive when other people were around, so with my father there, I was safe.   With most of the stuff loaded and my son and daughter at my sisters, I left for south Jersey.  I took the Garden State Parkway home.  Angry snow fell from the sky onto the window shield, making it difficult for me to see, but somehow I did.

            For about six months, I lived with my sister in her one bedroom apartment.  My children slept on a twin air mattress and I slept on the floor.   I woke up every morning determined not to go back to my son’s father.  I did not.  I made the best out of our living situation by continuing to press forward.  I got bedroom sheets that I knew my children would enjoy and put my daughter in swim twice a week.  I wanted things to be normal for as long as they could.
         Things were going pretty well until my son needed to have local eye surgery and I incurred the large bill.  When I asked Malik to help me, he refused; therefore I told him if he wouldn’t I would take him to court requesting that I get child support.  Malik told me that if I kept pressing the issue, he would not contribute in any kind of way towards daycare.  I pressed the issue.  He did not contribute; therefore, I filled out the paperwork to get a court hearing.

   “Hello, ma’am may I help you?”

     “Yes, this is my first time applying for child support. What do I need to do?”  The small man behind the
glass counter looked agitated.  It appeared that he did not want to be bothered.

“Here,” he said.  “You need to fill out this packet and bring this back to me.  Sign your name next to the X
on each page.  Any questions?”  

From the way he responded to me, I was afraid to ask him questions, but I did, “Yes, do I need to have his
financial information?”

“You mean you came to court without having his financial information?”  He looked at me with complete disbelief and disdain.

“Yes, I didn’t know I would need it to fill out the paperwork.  This is my first time doing this.”  I really wanted to switch registers and be as nasty to him as he was being to me, but I held my tongue.  I needed him to help me.

“Okay,  ma’am, “ his tone changed.  I guess he could see the nervousness in my eyes. “Yes you do need his information.  Do you know where he works?”

“No. He says he doesn’t have a job anymore, but I don’t believe him.”

“Do you know if he has any assets, stocks, bonds, investment property?”

“Somewhat.”  He reached to another pile beside him and got another packet of information.

“Okay, then you’ll need to fill out this as well.”  Fill this out as well?  Those words clanked about my head like a voice in the mountains with nothing but that singular voice bouncing off tree limbs.  Fill this out too?  He handed me at least 30 pages of blank pieces of paper to fill out.  Each line looked foreign to me “appellant” “plaintiff” “defendant” “stocks” “gross income” “fill out which division: family or child support”.  I was intimidated by all the white space on the pages. I refused to give up though.  I filled them out to the best of my ability.  Malik kept his finances a secret.  I didn’t know where he kept his money, where he banked or if he were the sole owner of his investment properties in Newark, New Jersey.  I did my best.  Some of the pages were left blank.

Once Malik received my motion from the court, things got really ugly. It’s important for you to understand that we began going to court in July 2011.  I did not actually begin getting child support until January 2012.  He was obligated to $69 per week plus $150 a week for daycare.  I was satisfied with that.  He wasn’t.  He wrote a motion asking for custody of my son claiming that I was an abusive parent, mentally unstable, and lost custody of my daughter Amaz.  I was confident that the judge wouldn’t believe him, and in part, the judges didn’t.  What became challenging though was getting Malik to pay child support.  He was so upset with the child support calculation that he wrote the court asking for a modification. 

In March 2012 he went to court.  I was not properly served so I did not attend the hearing.  From the hearing, Malik was able to get all of the arrears vacated.  His child support obligation was zero weekly dollars.  I was furious.  I did not know what to do.  I was responsible for paying half of daycare expenses, expenses for graduate school and providing for my daughter.  Because of all of my expenses, I began getting behind on bills.  During the process my car was reposed (though regained quickly) and house foreclosed.  Again, what was I going to do?  I didn’t understand all of the lingo of the court nor did I know how to properly argue my case to prove my credibility and disprove his.

Once I got the notice from court that all arrears were vacated and that he didn’t have to pay child support, I determined for myself that he would.  I decided to go back and ask for a reconsideration of the judge’s decision.  Before returning to the courthouse, this time, I did some investigation.  I did a search of his name through Google and found that he owned property in multiple locations within the state.   One of the pages proved that he owned a 21unit apartment building.  I printed those pages.  I brought them when I filled out another application to modify the judge’s decision from March.  The 30 pages of blank pages from the clerk did not seem so daunting.  Instead of taking two hours as it did before to fill out the paperwork, this time, it only took one.  “Thank you,” he said, “you have a court date in May.  We will send the defendant your application.”

I left the courthouse feeling pretty confident about my court date and my growing confidence in filling out the paperwork.  Wrong.  For various reasons our case was rescheduled three times.  Our case was not heard before a judge until August; that’s a whopping five months after my initial filing date.  Once our court date was heard, I presented the information from Google to the judge.  That was inadmissible. She needed something more factual.  Then miraculously I found a prior court order that said Malik had to bring five years worth of tax returns.  Each hearing he refused to comply with the court.  When I read this to the judge, she ordered for him to bring in his information within two weeks.  If he didn’t he would be sanctioned $25 each business day that passed without him bringing said information to court.  I was relieved.  Wrong. He still didn’t comply with the court.  Instead he continued making accusations about my mental fitness and inability to care for our son.  Again, the judge wouldn’t hear of it.  No child support was calculated that day.  However, he returned to court, asking for another reconsideration.  He wrote that he wants custody and requested a new court date. 

We got a court date for December 12^th.  The night before our court date, he called the judge’s chambers to adjourn the hearing.  He said he needed time to get his financial documents together.  The judge dismissed the case.  I was furious!  I had been waiting since March to get child support for our son and to prove my mental fitness as Malik’s mom.  I incurred unbelievable financial hardships and put my academic dreams on hold to provide for my children.  I was relentless.  I kept calling the judge’s chambers to get a new court date.  Finally after weeks of calling, I was able to get a court date for February.  However, this time, I decided I needed to learn how to speak like a lawyer, present my case like a lawyer, organize my case like a lawyer and to read like a lawyer. 

One of my friends just recently graduated from Georgetown Law School and is Commissioner for Washington DC.  I asked her to recommend a lawyer who could take my case.  Shortly after making this recommendation, I met with a lawyer.  I brought my paperwork and paid the consulting fee.  A month later I returned to her office.   We negotiated the price because I could not afford to pay the retainer; therefore, she said she would teach me a strategy to help me argue and present my case like a lawyer. 

She gave me a list of action items to complete.  I did.  It took me one month to retrieve all the information she required.  I ordered the Official Transcript from our March 12^th hearing.  When I read the transcript, I saw where he lied.  Based on this lie, he got his arrears erroneously vacated and child support payment reduced to zero weekly dollars.  I made a note of this.  I wrote a summary of why I needed child support using New Jersey State Statues that provide clear indicators for a person to receive child support.  I built my summary around this definition.  I also presented an explication of all the court orders without adding any personal narrative to sway the judge’s decision.  I included all of the court orders in chronological order.  I called the attorney when I did not understand wording on various documents.  She was kind.  She explained them to me for free.  Lastly, I found a rental advertisement for Malik’s apartment building.  I figured I nailed him.  This time he would pay child support and I would still be able to keep my son.

On February 15^th I returned to court.  My consulting attorney told me to put in bold face any proof or narrative that I wanted the judge to see.  I did.  She also told me to provide proof for everything I say in court.  I entered the judge’s courtroom with a binder of information: all court orders in chronological order, copies of his rental properties, a copy of the Official Transcript where he lied under oath, and an explication of the court orders.  I learned from prior hearings that judges do not read the entire file.  That’s how Malik was able to deceive the other judge.  My strategy was to kindly force the judge to read all of the court orders.  I began using lawyer speak when I addressed the judge: “Your Honor, may I please direct your attention to page 2 line 13….May I please kindly disagree and show Your Honor where the defendant is not being truthful…According to N.J.S.A. which outlines factors for child support, I base my need accordingly”.  I felt proud. 

Malik hired an expensive attorney.  In fact, he’s listed as one of the most expensive lawyers in the Essex County.  I could not afford an attorney, but on that day, I felt confident that I could win my case: get child support for my son and remain primary custodial parent.  During the court proceeding, Malik was caught in several lies.  When his lawyer tried to defend his client, I used the strategy from my lawyer (match his words against court orders) and disputed his claim.  I poked holes in his credibility.  As a result, I maintain custody of my son and get child support. When I showed the judge proof of his rental properties, she told me that I could not submit information from Google as it’s not always credible.  I needed to go to the County Clerk’s Office.  While I was happy that I was getting child support, I knew if I followed the suggestion of the judge, it was possible to increase my child support.  Of course Malik was upset that he had to pay child support and of course he wrote the court for another hearing.  He still wants custody and he is still trying to get his child support payment reduced to zero dollars a week.

I decided to think like a lawyer by doing a legal search of his name at Essex County, the county where he purchased property.  While there, I found out that Malik was purposely underreporting his income because he owns over 1 MILLION dollars in investment properties.  He’s also taken out loans on his property amounting in more than $750,000 cash.  Now I have solid proof: deeds to all of his properties and copies of his mortgage.  Our new court date is in a couple of weeks.  I plan on using this information to justify an increase in child support. 

Because I have new information, I had to return to court to fill out another application for the judge.   “Hello, Ms. Young.  It’s you again.”

“Yes, unfortunately it’s me again.”  I’ve been there so many times that they know my name.

“How may I help you today?”

“I need an application for modification and enforcement of two separate court orders.  Do I need two applications for that?”

“No, you don’t.  But you must have a copy of the court order that you wish to enforce.”

“I do.  I also have proof that the defendant has been underreporting his income to avoid paying a higher amount in child support.”

“You do?  Let me see what you have.”  I took out my documents and handed them to him.  “If you include  Do you want him to have a copy?”
this in your application, the defendant will get a copy.

“No.  I will compose a Letter of Certification for the judge.  At said time, I will send the defendant the same information through certified mail.  Once I get confirmation that he’s received aforementioned, I’ll enter the deeds and other supporting documentation to the court.”  I was so impressed by my confidence.  From just one session with my lawyer, I was able to imitate the way she spoke.

“No problem Ms. Young.  I understand.” Not only did I have Malik’s financial documents, I brought extra copies for the clerk, I updated the explication of court orders and have solid proof showing how duplicitous Malik has been in court proceedings.  Now the application does not have blank pages.  All of the pages are neatly filled out.

Even though I did not win every court proceeding, I feel more confident in my ability to present my ideas and read the application for court.  I had to learn how to talk and act like a lawyer in order for the judge and law clerk to take me seriously.  In the beginning, I didn’t know how to fill out the application properly.  I was intimidated by all the foreign lawyer-like words.  I was also afraid that because Malik has more money, a bigger house, and newer car that he had all the material trinkets to suggest he was a better parent.  However, that was and is not true.  I learned that judges do not always read court orders and that if I want the judge to really hear my case, I must be organized, have proof and always be polite.  Since learning how to speak and read Lawyer, I feel powerful.  I did not have the money to hire one of the most expensive lawyers in the state. Instead I researched the Internet, talked to friends who were lawyers and used the strategy from my lawyer to help me present my ideas clearly.  I have a new case in April before the same judge who heard my case in February.  I feel confident that I’ll be able to save Malik by keeping him with me.  Learning how to read court documents, address the court and speak Lawyer will help.