Articles Tagged with attorney fees

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LIMERICK V. ROJO-LIMERICK, 2023-NCCOA-________ (2023). 

  1. Facts:  Plaintiff and Defendant are parents of a minor child. In August of 2020, Plaintiff filed for divorce from bed and board, child custody and child support, and attorney fees. Defendant counterclaimed for custody, child support, equitable distribution, alimony, and attorney fees. Defendant then voluntarily dismissed his counterclaims for equitable distribution, postseparation support, alimony, and attorney fees. However, Defendant’s claims for custody and child support remained open. Plaintiff then dismissed his claims except for child custody and child support. The trial court eventually entered into a consent order for permanent child custody, temporary child support, and attorney fees. The remaining issues for child support and fees were heard in November of 2021. Plaintiff’s claim for fees was granted. Defendant appealed. 

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Shebalin v. Shebalin, 2022-NCCOA-410.

Facts:

This appeal arose from the appointment of a parenting coordinator. Parenting coordinators are often appointed to child custody cases when the parents absolutely cannot get along. Plaintiff and Defendant had a minor child together who was at the center of their custody dispute. The trial court’s finding was that the case had become “high conflict” and thus a parenting coordinator was appointed for a term of years. In 2019, Defendant filed a motion to appoint again and was met with a motion to dismiss. At the hearing on these motions in 2020, the trial court again labeled the case high conflict, denied the motion to dismiss, and then set out a future date for the appointment of a coordinator. Continue reading →

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Preston v. Preston, 2022-NCCOA-207.

Facts: Plaintiff and Defendant married in 1988, and began divorce proceedings in 2018. Plaintiff filed his claim for divorce in October of 2018. In July 2019, Defendant filed her answer with motions to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, improper venue, insufficiency of process, failure to state a claim, and a motion for sanctions. Defendant’s chief argument was that Plaintiff was not a resident of North Carolina and not a resident of Mecklenburg County. The trial court found otherwise. In an interesting turn of events, Defendant verified her complaint for postseparation support, alimony, equitable distribution and fees just a day before the hearing for her motions to dismiss. In her complaint Defendant actually stated that Plaintiff was a resident of North Carolina. Her complaint was then filed an hour after the hearing on the motions to dismiss. Defendant later filed a motion to stay the divorce, which was denied. Plaintiff then motioned for Rule 11 sanctions based on Defendant’s conduct. The trial court granted and ordered that Defendant pay $15,000 in fees to Plaintiff. Defendant appealed. Continue reading →

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Barry v. Comm’r, T.C. Memo. 2017-237, 2017 WL 5899406 (2017)

 

(a) Facts: When the parties were divorced, the husband agreed to pay the wife $2,400 per month in alimony.  Twenty-four years later, the husband filed an action against the wife in federal court for breach of contract, arguing that he had overpaid alimony and that the wife was required to return the overpayment.  The action was dismissed quickly as time-barred.

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