Small victories

I suppose I should start off with an update on the back.  Its still messed up of course, but I'm getting around a bit better as long as I keep medded up.  The Lyrica is helping some, its not as potent as the oxycontin but I can concentrate a lot better and I'm more myself lately, which is good.  I had an MRI on the 19th and dropped the images off at my doc's this past Monday evening.  He was supposed to call me but didn't, and of course he's on vacation now.  His assistant told me he took a quick look at them and said he was thinking about a series of epidurals.  I don't think I want to do that.  Not a big fan of things stuck into my spine.

The order of protection against my exwife expired yesterday, so I went to court bright and early and had it renewed.  The judge gave me the option of renewing it for as long as I wanted up to 2 years, so I went for the max.  He granted it, so its good until October 23, 2009 at 5pm.  Then I stopped off at the Clerk's office to get copies of my divorce and mediation paperwork so I could give them to that lawyer thats going to help me out with getting makeup visitation.  Ran into a little snag, though.

I forced my ex into mediation back in June of 2000.  If you think I've had problems lately, you should have seen how bad it was before we went to mediation.  So we both spent several thousands of dollars on the mediator.  The paperwork for it was one of the things I requested, as I mentioned.  So I pay for the copies and I'm leaving the Clerk offices (DuPage county Clerk's office is phenomenal to behold, its really something and very efficient) and as I'm walking out I begin leafing through the paperwork looking for the mediation agreement, since thats the current paperwork thats binding in this case.  Problem was, I didn't see it in there.  So I go back to the girl and politely point out that I didn't have all the paperwork I needed.  So she goes back into the computer and lo and behold...nothing.  The lawyer we went to for mediation never entered the paperwork into the court.  Um...hello?  You cashed our checks though, didn't you?  So thats a big problem.  But as it turned out I went through some old emails in my personal account and discovered this lawyer had emailed me the agreement in Word format, so I had it.

So I call this lawyer up and tell him everything that went on.  He was amazed that my ex didn't show for the hearing that morning, since now she has an OP against her for 2 years and she didn't bother to contest it.  Secondly, he wasn't thrilled about this other lawyer's negligence.  I told him I did have a copy though, but as he pointed out...its worthless since its never been entered into the court.  I don't even know if it can be entered any more, since its been almost 7 1/2 years since it was drawn up.  But anyway Im going to see him Tuesday morning before work and we're going to see what we can do about some things, so thats good.

But now my search begins for this lawyer who did the mediation.  Her name and office number was on the paperwork, but the phone number is no good and the email address I had for her back in 2000 is no good either.  I checked online and found a record of her still being in Oak Brook so I need to find her.  I want my money back, and I'm not even kidding there.  I'm considering looking into whether or not I can sue her.

If any lawyers here might know of a directory that I can use to find her, please PM me.  Otherwise I'm going to be checking the internet all weekend for a clue.

So anyway, as the subject of this blog says...small victories.  Things are beginning to improve overall and I'm hopeful that many things will get resolved in the next week or so.