If you are in a divorce and married to anybody that is or may be dishonest to any extent, go through the District Court. I went through JAG for my divorce in 2011. Five years later when I took my ex back to Court (Maricopa County District Court) for Contempt, the judge stated that my divorce decree was "unconscionable". My ex who hid hundreds of thousands of dollars, hid $250,000/year rental income (which I got $0), never paid taxes a day in his life. He was to have removed my name off of a $2.5 million dollars in combined mortgages within 5 years but never did and since JAG could not enforce-I had to take my case back to District Court for contempt.
During my divorce (via JAG), my ex's goal was to exhaust my financial resources for attorney fees. At one point we spent days negotiating the split of rental properties (approved verbally by all parties) and I may have gotten a fair divorce but when the decree was written up he (my ex) refused to sign-the JAG judge didn't care about my costs and ordered that we go back to negotiating. The JAG judge didn't care that his discovery was disaster (which cost me thousands in legal fees for my attorney's to decipher) yet the County District Court Judge ordered my ex pay ALL my attorney fees after he tried the same unethical shenanigan. Also, the decree ordered he pay me a $270,000 equalization payment from the sale of a Mexico home. The sale only brought $113,000 in equity and the JAG judge knowing my ex committed tax fraud and was unscrupulous based on highly unethical behavior in the JAG courtroom, believed his fake receipts and I never got my equalization payment. When I was in District Court, my attorney mentioned the equalization payment and his attorney told the Judge that JAG already ruled on that. I did receive during a later mediation $113,000-never did get the $270,000 and it would have most likely cost me $100K to prove the additional fraud. The silver lining is the District Court ordered a quick sale of the rental properties (which was 100% debt, no equity) and it took his annual HIDDEN rental income from the $250,000/year to zero and finally my name off the debt. District Court has the ability to threaten sanctions, e.g. in my case prison was mentioned, which ultimately is what was required for me to get a scrap of justice. I could go on and on. My divorce was extremely dark and the 2 District Court Judges figured out his character immediately. My son with Down Syndrome went with me and he is thriving, my 14 year old daughter went with him and he(my ex) paid for her 11-13 liquor store purchases every month and gave her $3000/month for fun money while she was still a minor-to cement the parental alienation. I have seen her 1 week in the last 10 years. The JAG judge stated who would parent my 14 year old was a very difficult decision-another confirmation that he was incapable of seeing the truth. I'll never forget the body language of the District Court Judge (in the contempt hearing), about 10 seconds after my ex opened his mouth-she knew instantly!!!! All in all, I was in District Court with 5 different Judges ( 2 for divorce, 2 for probate-for my son custody hearing, and 1 for criminal-fake police reports) and the only Judge that had no clue to what was happening was the JAG Judge. read more