The La Crosse County is being sued by a woman that contends that a requirement, that she make a $10,000 deposit for attorney fees, has denied her access to the courts, as reported by the La Crosse Tribune.
The woman, H.S., from Adams, Wisconsin, already owes the county almost $4,000 in legal fees. She planned to file for bankruptcy but a federal judge said that would not get her out of paying the fees.
The amount is an approximation of what H.S. will need to continue her six-year-long child custody battle.
One lawyer has called her case the most contentious that he has ever handled.
The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court.
Bill Shepherd, the La Crosse County corporation counsel, said that attorneys would be appointed by the county’s insurer to answer the complaint.
Nicholas Fairweather, in speaking for H.S., said that his client “…was required to make a $10,000 deposit, money she just didn't have. (The rule) denies people the opportunity to go in front of a court and state your case.”
The costs for a child custody hearing in La Crosse County can include an evaluation by a custody assessment team, if the parents can’t settle their dispute via mediation. The team, at an expense of $2,200 for each party, is comprised of one county child custody evaluator, one child therapist and one attorney to act as guardian ad litem representing the interests of the child.
The team is then charged with interviewing parents more than once and visiting the child in both parent’s homes. They must also speak to the child’s teachers, grandparents and any others that have regular contact with the child.
Then the team makes their recommendations to the court commissioner. If a parent has a further dispute with the team’s findings they can ask, for a minimum $5000 deposit, for a judge to review the decision.
It is up to each individual judge to decide if the fee will be waived for parents that are unable to afford it.
It is this rule that Stevens’ is arguing. His client contends that her constitutional rights have been violated in denying her access to the courts.
H.S. originally had 50 percent custody of her then-infant daughter in 2005. Both parents failed at a court-ordered mediation, claiming that the other was a poor parent, and each denied access of the child to the other.
The team then evaluated the situation and gave primary custody to the father. The court agreed, and H.S.’s access to the child was reduced to every other weekend when the child started in school.
Less than a year later, a custody team member, and the father’s attorney, Mark Huesmann, claimed that H.S. was not cooperating. Huesmann said, “I have never seen such a degree of stonewalling and refusal to cooperate with routine requests.”
The guardian ad litem in the team, B.M., claimed that his expenses grew to $9,000 but that would limit his fee to $4,500.
The Judge ruled that $10,000 was a reasonable amount for a new hearing due to the contentiousness of the case.
In regards to the lawsuit Fairweather said, “She's not out seeking millions of dollars, we're trying to get to the hearing.”
If you are embroiled in a child custody case, and need to understand the family laws governing your state, contact a family law attorney.