Q: In a divorce case motion to compel hearing can I request we skip mediation and just have the judge decide based on fact?
My husband has sold equipment worth $10,000 and has taken all of our possessions off the property and he refuses to comply with discovery or an order to relocate property. His attorney when I attempted to meet and confer has just blown me off telling me we need mediation. Things can't be mediated in my opinion until he complies with producing the items that have disappeared. I don't have an attorney now due to all the games my husband has been playing and I don't want to go to mediation and pay for that knowing that it's not going to help he won't even comply with court orders. One of the games he played included criminal charges against me from his cousin with him as her only witness for harassment in which she made several false statements and the state has dropped the charges but I still have to go to trial and to date I have spent over $3,800 on this. Can I ask the judge to award me reimbursement for the cost through the property division?
A: You can request that the court hold a pretrial conference and request a trial date at the same time. It is customary for courts to send the parties to mediation to see if they can come to some sort of agreement, however if that does in fact fail, then the court generally will set a trial date.
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