Attorneys Can Be Deadbeat Dads Too ...

Local attorney Ken Thomas got himself 25 days in the clink for non-payment of child support last week. Thomas was dragged into court by Judge Ken Pollock on an Order to Show Cause. Our tipster provided the following information:

Mr. Thomas was up against Attorney Ed Kainen. Thomas was ordered to pay $1,400 per month in child support back in 2008. He made one $3,000 payment in approximately September 2008, but nothing since.

Thomas' defenses were 1) he thought the contempt hearing stemmed from his failure to appear at the last hearing; 2) he was not properly noticed for a previous order to show cause hearing; 3) that mom knew that he paid in lump sums to her when he received money from his PI cases; and 4) that he had no money to pay the support; and 5) that he was appealing the child support order to the Nevada Supreme Court.

On examination, Mr. Kainen asked Mr. Thomas what his most important bills were. Mr. Thomas said rent first and then proceeded to list a bunch of utilities and student loans (an obvious set up by Kainen to show that Mr. Thomas does not take the child support obligation seriously).

Mr. Thomas provided a letter in his defense that he called an "unavailability of attorney" letter, which he claimed was notice that he would be unavailable for service of papers during three weeks in November and 2 weeks in December 2009. Mr. Kainen got out that the unavailability stemmed from Mr. Thomas travelling outside of Nevada and/or working on other legal cases. Mr. Kainen also got out that Mr. Thomas pays $170 per month for a Cox cable bundle and other non-necessary expenses.

Judge Pollock did not appear upset, but stated that there was no excuse for failure to pay any child support. No good faith effort had been made in 18 months. The judge also noted that Mr. Thomas had never sought a stay during the appeal, nor had he sought a waiver of the bond related to requesting a stay (which was Mr. Thomas' excuse for not requesting a stay).

Pollock found Mr. Thomas in contempt on 17 counts of failure to abide by the court ordered monthly child support obligation and sentenced him to 425 days in jail. 400 days stayed if Mr. Thomas remains current on his obligation.

Some other Interesting facts: Mr. Thomas is a bartender part-time. He claims he has made little money in this field over the past year. His legal office is in his home and he claims to have 4 PI cases and 4 criminal cases. He offered to give mom a lien against any settlements or awards in the PI cases.

Thomas was admitted in 2000 and is still working part-time as a bartender? Ouch. Regardless, take care of your kids, counselor.

Any bets as to whether our state bar will step up on this one?

(Thanks Tipster!)