INFORMATION ON JON KUKUCKA, ESQ. WHO IS CURRENTLY PERSECUTING PROTECTIVE MOTHER, COLLEEN KERWICK!

This is general information in regard to Attorney Jon Kukucka who is leading the legal charge against Protective Mother, Colleen Kerwick.  It is as a result of his actions that Colleen has not seen her child in over a month.  I wonder how he would feel if he was unable to see his child.  I wonder how his wife would feel if she knew what he was up to.

 

For further information, regarding this attorney's background, see below.  I obtained this information from the Budlong and Barrett website.

 

B.A. University of Connecticut
J.D. Roger Williams University , School of Law

Attorney Jon T. Kukucka graduated, magna cum laude, from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Sociology. He received his Juris Doctorate, magna cum laude, from Roger Williams University School of Law, where he was an editor of the Law Review and a member of the Honors Program. During law school, he received CALI Awards for Excellence in Legal Writing, Civil Procedure, Trial Advocacy, Judicial Process & Ethics and Labor Law.

Following graduation, Attorney Kukucka served as a legal research clerk to the judges of the Connecticut Superior Court. Prior to joining Budlong and Barrett, Attorney Kukucka served as a law clerk to the Honorable Francis M. McDonald and the Honorable Robert I. Berdon at the Connecticut Appellate Court.

Attorney Kukucka is admitted to practice before Connecticut's federal and state courts and is a member of the Connecticut and Hartford County Bar Associations. He focuses his practice on family law. Attorney Kukucka has represented clients in cases involving dissolution of marriage, prenuptial agreements, postnuptial agreements, property division, alimony, parental relocation, child custody, visitation and child support. Attorney Kukucka has also been counsel on many appeals to the Connecticut Supreme and Appellate Courts and recently co-authored Developments in Connecticut Family Law 2008 and 2009, an article that appeared in the Connecticut Bar Journal in 2010. In 2011, Attorney Kukucka was selected as a Rising Star in the area of matrimonial law by the Family Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association.

Attorney Kukucka enjoys fishing and is a lifelong baseball fan.

WICKED LAWYER JOKE (2)

     A truck driver would amuse himself by running over lawyers he would see walking down the side of the road.
     Every time he would see a lawyer walking along the road, he would swerve to hit him, and there would be a loud "THUMP" and then he would swerve back onto the road.  
     (At this point, some of you are probably wondering how the trucker could distinguish the lawyers from the humans.  Obviously, he saw the trail of slime they left!)  
     One day, as the truck driver was driving along he saw a priest hitchhiking.  He thought he would do a good turn and pulled the truck over.  
     He asked the priest, "Where are you going, Father?"
     "I'm going to the church 5 miles down the road." replied the priest.  
     "No problem, Father!  I'll give you a lift.  Climb in the truck."  
     The happy priest climbed into the passenger seat and the truck driver continued down the road.  
     Suddenly the truck driver saw another lawyer walking down the road and instinctively he swerved to hit him.  But then he remembered there was a priest in the truck with him so, at the last minute, he swerved back away, narrowly missing the lawyer.  
     However, even though he was certain he missed the lawyer, he still heard a loud "THUD".  
     Not understanding where the noise came from he glanced in his mirrors and when he didn't see anything, he turned to the priest and said, "I'm sorry Father, I almost hit that lawyer."  
     "That's okay", replied the priest.  "I got him with the door!"

LEGAL RIGHTS OF CLIENTS! YES, FOLKS, WE ACTUALLY DO HAVE SOME!

CLIENT'S BASIC LEGAL RIGHTS

As the client or consumer of legal services from an attorney or other professional, you have certain basic rights that you can expect your attorney to abide by. Be aware that although you have these rights, getting them enforced can be problematic. A reasonable, tactful approach to enforcing these rights will often be your best bet, since attorneys are reluctant to sue other attorneys and bar associations are notoriously ineffective at policing their own members. Nonetheless, if your attorney (or opposing counsel) has committed a breach of ethics, you have every right to report them to their professional association and any other applicable governing bodies. Legal Rights Of Clients You have a right to discuss the proposed rates and retainer fee with your lawyer and you have the right to bargain about the fees before you sign the agreement, as in any other contract. You have the right to know how many other legal staff (including additional attorneys) will be working on your case at any given time, and what you will be charged for their services. You have the right to know in advance how you will be asked to pay legal fees and any other expenses at the end of the case. If you pay for a retainer, you may ask reasonable questions about how the money will be spent or has been spent and how much of it remains unspent. You are under no legal obligation to sign a Promissory Note or agree to a lien or mortgage on your home to cover legal fees. You are under no legal obligation to waive your rights to dispute a bill for legal services. You have a right to a reasonable estimate of expected future costs. If your lawyer agrees to lend or advance you money for preparing your case, you have the right to know periodically how much money your lawyer has spent on your behalf. You also have the right to decide after consulting with your lawyer, how much money is to be spent to prepare a case. If you pay the expenses, you have the right to decide how much to spend. You have the right to ask your lawyer at reasonable intervals how the case is progressing and to have these questions answered to the best of your lawyer's ability. You have the right to make the final decision regarding the settlement of your case. You have a right to original documents that are not part of your attorney's work product. For instance, if you gave your present attorney documents from another attorney, you have a right to those documents. You have a right to ask your attorney to forward documents to you in a timely manner as he/she receives them from the opposing party's attorney. You have a right to be present at ALL court conferences relating to your case that are held with judges and attorneys, and you also have the right to bring a family member or a friend to all court proceedings, unless a judge orders otherwise. You have the right to know the approximate cost of bringing a motion. The cost may vary depending on the lawyer's rates and circumstances of the case, but you have the right to a general estimate. If at any time, you, the client, believe that your lawyer has charged an excessive or illegal fee, you have the right to report the matter to a disciplinary or grievance committee that oversees lawyer misconduct. Please Note:  This list of Client Rights was taken from the S.P.A.R.C. website at:  www.deltabravo.net.  For more excellent information, check out this website.  It is extremely helpful to all litigants.

DON'T BE THE LAST TO KNOW. WHEN ATTORNEYS BETRAY THEIR CLIENTS!

It is true, family court is all about winning and losing--either you win or you lose.  At least that is true of high conflict divorces.  So, how do you know whether you are heading for a lose situation? 

One of the ways you can figure that out is when you find yourself an outsider in the divorce proceedings, but your ex is clearly an insider.  This means that when you have an upcoming court date your ex will call up and tell you in detail what the outcome of that court date will be.  Huh?  How did he know all that?  Well, I will give you one big guess. 

As I have said before, everyone is really buddy buddy in court.  Whenever I go to court, I always end up seeing the same old players.  They've been around for some time.  These folks, during the course of their work at court, often end up in chambers with the judge.  And you know what happens there!  Oh, Judge So and So, remember the whatchamacallit case, yes, well, we were thinking that we could just blah, blah, blah and the deal is done.  Any hearing that takes place subsequently is just for show, i.e. to keep you satisfied that you had a hearing, and to earn the attorneys more money.  Nothing like a hearing to raise cash!  Particularly in these difficult economic times.

The truth is that most cases are decided between attorneys within the first few weeks of the case, no matter how long the case continues to drag on subsequently.  Attorneys have seen these cases for years and they know what they think is fair and what the judges will put up with and they don't need to go to court and have a trial to figure it out even though they will give you a good show if you insist on one. 

And if you persist on trying to go your own way, your attorney will just sit there until you come back because they know that without them you won't be going anywhere at all.  You are the horse and the attorney is the rider.  Get it? 

Another indicator that you are the loser in the case is when you go to court and when you are hanging around in the corridor waiting for the process to move forward, your attorney has joined the opposing attorney and your ex for a nice chat while you are standing there alone several feet away going "What the F---!" 

And another one along those lines is when you make a suggestion to your attorney regarding how to handle the case and YOUR attorney says that the opposing attorney doesn't think that it is such a good idea. 

I like the one where my attorney expressed great sympathy because the opposing attorney hadn't been paid in a while.  Ahhhhhh.  Wittle opposing  attorney hadn't been paid! Ahhhhhh!  What a shame!  I am soooo sorry.  What can we do about that dreadful situation?  Perhaps agree to a few provisions in the financial agreement that would cause you harm?  After all, wittle opposing attorney hadn't been paid!  We don't want to drag this process out.  

A good way to tell that things are going wrong is when you have absurdities like that. 

Another situation that happens is that your attorney will start to attack you in subtle and indirect ways in an attempt to undermine your confidence.  Questions like, "Why don't you make sure your children have their lunch money at school." when there is no indication that you didn't or "How come this bill at Wallgreens is so high?" when it is actually quite low. 

Another way you can figure out you are are losing is when you obtain judgments that simply don't make sense given the evidence, or when your attorney insists you agree to stipulations that are quite obviously not in your favor.  

I am not sure what you can do in these kinds of circumstances.  After all, what you have here is an outright conspiracy which includes the one person, your attorney, who is paid thousands and thousands of dollars in order to support you.  You could try to change attorneys, but in those cases the new attorney will adopt the attitudes and agreements of the first attorney, and you will end up with an emptier wallet combined with a bad reputation for changing attorneys. 

The other way is to be so knowledgeable about the process that it is hard to get around you and manipulate you.  In that case you need to invest a lot of your time and ultimately become more of an attorney than an attorney, and who has the time for that.  However, that may be your only option.  Then you can screw up your attorney's attempts to undermine you by pointing out his legal errors. 

At the very least, by reading this article and getting clued in on the signs of attorney betrayal, you won't end up being a chump.

SHOULD YOU CHANGE YOUR LAWYER?

Let me see.  Oh.  Here it is.  This is an email I just got from a friend.  It says, "What should I do about the fact that my attorney won't return my phone calls or respond to my emails?" 

That is a good question, actually, and one most of us in high conflict divorce cases would like an answer to.  I've got to say that I have no easy answer to that question at all.  What can you do?  Let me say right now that if your attorney refuses to respond to you, this is a violation of the attorney's professional code of legal ethics. 

That said, who is going to make them obey their own code of ethics?  You?  Don't make me laugh.  Are you going to report them?  Don't waste your time.  Attorneys have a Statewide Grievance Committee and a grievance procedure that is structured to allow them to get away with murder, and they do.  So what else you gonna do?  Stamp your pretty little foot?  Well, that'll have just the same effect.  The best thing I can say is wait around until the lawyer is ready to speak to you and don't pester them too much.

The other option you have is to change your lawyer.  In my case, that was my first thought, so after I'd had five months of working with one lawyer, I switched to another.  I met this second attorney twice and explained to him in no uncertain terms how difficult my case was.  He was very clear about the problems in my case and said certain motions had not been filed that should have been filed and that the previous attorney had been incompetent. The implication was that this new attorney would not make the same mistakes as the first. 

I went on to hire another five attorneys and each one was just as bad as the first.  Still, one thing that was true of each and every attorney was that at the first few meetings they would be eloquent about bad the previous attorneys had been, they would be very clear on what needed to be done, which cheered me up immensely, and they would promise me, practically saluting me like the American flag, hand over heart, that everything from now on would be done properly with their excellent assistance.  Inevitably, however, all of that would unravel and fall apart as soon as I gave them their usually very large retainer. 

Another significant problem that arose as I changed attorneys was the problem that with each change of attorney, the new attorney had to get up to speed by reading the entire file, and as the file got bigger and bigger, keeping up got harder and harder and cost me more and more money.  So I paid a lot of money simply for catch up.  Plus, even though subsequent attorneys may wish to review all the information, it is just too difficult and so there are going to be blind patches where they choose not to make a crucial legal move because they didn't experience the case from the beginning. 

It is also important to keep in mind the attitude the Court has regarding litigants who frequently change attorneys.  After you get rid of the second attorney and are onto the third, you will pretty much end up with a bad reputation as a difficult and uncooperative person, even if it is not deserved.  From then on the opposing attorney will frequently state, both in open court and in motions, that you have repeatedly changed attorneys. 

So, what can you do, you ask? 

I'm not sure.  I had attorneys I had hired walk out on me at the drop of a hat.  As soon as I didn't immediately agree to do as I was told, they were gone--out the door.  One simply walked out of the proceedings with a comment like, "I can't deal with that woman!" 

Attorneys seem to have the attitude that the only reason you are there is to pay their massive bills while they betray you to your enemies big time.  

For those of us escaping abusive marriages, the bad news is that the good majority of attorneys have exactly the same narcissistic, egotistical personalities that your abusive ex husband had and which you were trying to escape.  They order you around, tell you what to do, and totally disrespect you whether you agree to do what they say or not. They take from you every dime you've got, suck you dry financially, and then they spit you out like a raisin. 

So, what's a body supposed to do, particularly when you are as panicked and terrified as you are during a custody and divorce proceeding in family court. 

My best answer is not particularly a good one, but it is the only one I've got.  What I'd say is do your best to work with the ridiculous idiot attorney you have got.  Flatter them, flirt with them, stroke their enormous egos to the max. 

Then, do so much preparation that you could actually conduct the whole case yourself.  That way when he or she tells you to do something wrong, you are well prepared to tell him or her why you can't do it legally speaking. 

Become so well informed that if the Judge ignores your attorney and asks you a question you will be well prepared with a persuasive, well informed response.  Do what you can to be so knowledgeable that you have the ability to guide and direct your attorney where you want to go. But when you can do it in a way that is gentle, respectful, low key, and often humorous. 

Develop a relationship with the idiot attorney so that you are almost friends.  If the attorney seems frustrated, ask him or her what you can do to help them.  Ask them to explain the situation in more detail so that you can get to understand more clearly what is at stake and what needs to happen in order to achieve your goals. Allow them the opportunity to fluff out their feathers and strut a bit before you.  It'll do no end of good.

Never, ever, ever allow your attorney to go to any meetings at any time with the judge, the opposing attorney, with anyone associated with the case without making sure you are present.  Those little meetings are exactly where agreements are made, so don't miss a single one if you want to be included in the agreement making. 

Remember all attorney's are no good and they are incredibly manipulative.  They will lie, lie, lie, and then lie again.  If they ever tell you anything, investigate the issue first before allowing yourself to believe what they've told you.  

Never let them see that you have all sorts of money.  That's like waving crack cocaine in front of an addict.  And don't give them a great big fat assed retainer either!  Give them little sums of money in dribs and drabs and occasionally insert a dry period just to keep them on edge.  Otherwise, you'll be in Court for life. 

Yeah, ok, for those of you who think I'm being to cynical, I'll concede, perhaps somewhere out there is a good attorney who doesn't need all this stuff, but I haven't met him yet.  And until I do, I'm sticking to what I've said here.  Tell me if you find things any different! 

WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!

I know that as I write this post, you will wonder to yourselves--is she paranoid? Of course, just because everyone is talking about you, that doesn't mean you are paranoid! And I am officially not paranoid. I took several psychological tests during my divorce and each of them said, nope, she's not paranoid.

What I'm taking my time bringing up is the question I've heard frequently in my talks with other people. Is it true, they ask, that right from the beginning of a case both attorneys meet together and decide what the outcome is going to be in advance--they've decided who is going to win, and they've decided how much each person is going to get from the marital assets, and they've decided how much the attorneys will get, and it doesn't matter how much you talk, how much you urge your attorney to act differently, or how long it takes to get through the litigation, they'll just go along with the agreement they arrived at with the other attorney within a day or two of getting your case no matter what.

This is pretty plausible given that, in the state of CT, divorce lawyers are a closed, intimate group that interact with each other all the time, often over a period years. They know all the clerks and they know all the judges and they know your case because they've retried it multiple times over the years; its just that the litigants' names change, if you know what I'm saying.

Plus, they've got a few favors to take and give back.

They know their way around much faster than you do, they know how to build you up and take you back down. In short, if you think it is all a set up, I'd bet you aren't far wrong. Prove the case for me guys!