NJSBA Family Law Section

Listmates,

I wonder if anyone can shed some light on the following situation.

A few years back I helped a client obtain an FRO (trial). Defendant filed motion for reconsideration (represented) and lost. He then filed an appeal (with 9 motions)(pro se) and also lost. After each proceeding I sought and was granted attorney fees against the defendant. He never paid a penny.

I now have judgments against the defendant for the money owed me and wonder what my next step should be. But in the meantime...

Defendant now claims that he's going to file yet another motion to get this case reopened based on fraud. He seems to think that during the trial I played some fake recording, as opposed to the actual TRO call made at a police station to a judge on duty.

I have the call on a CD and I had it transcribed and submitted during the appeal. Defendant now wants to get the copy of the actual call, not just a transcript. Apparently the police department will not release it to him without a court order.

Can I just give the defendant a copy of the CD (with the disputed call)? The recording will prove to him once and for all that no fraud was committed thus hopefully stopping him from filing yet another motion. But is it proper for me to share this recording with the defendant?

Thank you very much.
Natalia Teper

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Natalia Teper Esq.
Pennington NJ
(609)737-3030
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Original Message------

Listmates,

I wonder if anyone can shed some light on the following situation.

A few years back I helped a client obtain an FRO (trial). Defendant filed motion for reconsideration (represented) and lost. He then filed an appeal (with 9 motions)(pro se) and also lost. After each proceeding I sought and was granted attorney fees against the defendant. He never paid a penny.

I now have judgments against the defendant for the money owed me and wonder what my next step should be. But in the meantime...

Defendant now claims that he's going to file yet another motion to get this case reopened based on fraud. He seems to think that during the trial I played some fake recording, as opposed to the actual TRO call made at a police station to a judge on duty.

I have the call on a CD and I had it transcribed and submitted during the appeal. Defendant now wants to get the copy of the actual call, not just a transcript. Apparently the police department will not release it to him without a court order.

Can I just give the defendant a copy of the CD (with the disputed call)? The recording will prove to him once and for all that no fraud was committed thus hopefully stopping him from filing yet another motion. But is it proper for me to share this recording with the defendant?

Thank you very much.
Natalia Teper

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Natalia Teper Esq.
Pennington NJ
(609)737-3030
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Original Message------

What leads you to believe that he will accept what you give him as being authentic?

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone

Natalia -

I had a similar case many years ago before Judge Dilts.  A defendant filed multiple motions trying to vacate an FRO (along with appeals to the Supreme Court, the federal district court, the 3d Circuit Court of Appeals, and the US Supreme Court, and along with suing me, suing the judge, suing the court system).  I eventually filed a cross motion to declare him a vexatious litigant.  While you can't stop someone from filing (Constitutional right to access to the court system and all), you can seek an order requiring that any motions he files be screened by the judge before being accepted for filing and, if found to be frivolous, returned unfiled to the defendant.  I sometimes wonder what additional attempts were made, but in that case my client never again had to incur counsel fees (which, as in your case, were assessed to defendant and then reduced to worthless judgments), and we never saw another motion.  Let me know if you want a copy of the pleadings.

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David Perry Davis, Esq.
112 West Franklin Avenue
Pennington, NJ 08534
Voice: 609-737-2222
Fax: 609-737-3222
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