The Long Road to Justice and Freedom

Over a great many years of dealing with divorce attorneys in the UK and in Spain, I have to say I found the vast majority of men, and one or two women, in the legal profession to be less than trust worthy. However, I must admit that I was lucky enough to come across two attorneys who made a very deep impression on me as being not only excellent at their job, but also decent and honest human beings.

The first of these two gentlemen was my first legal aid, free lawyer. His name was Salvador (how appropriate) and he gave excellent legal representation for me in court. The only problem was that although I was so impressed I wanted him to be my lawyer for the future, he had come to the end of serving his pro bono free (Government funded) service.

Some time later, maybe a year after Salvador had so expertly defended me in court, I suddenly got a call from him right out of the blue. Salvador asked me to go and see him in his office on the following Monday morning.

Now I have to say that at that time my vicious ex was running rings round me with multiple complaints to the authorities and I had a plethora of onerous cases coming up in court, with less than inspiring legal representation.

On the following Monday I went to Salvador's office in the centre of town. As I sat at his desk, in an office his father, Salvador Senior, had established decades before, Salvador immediately said....

"I see from my daily rounds at the court that you're becoming overloaded with cases against you. I see lots of notices on court room doors with your name on them. Ok, so I've called you in because I want to help you."

"That would be wonderful Salvador...."I said in a defeated voice, but you are an excellent lawyer and I have not got a penny piece to pay you." His reply filled my heart with joy.

"Liam, it is not always all about money, it's about doing the right thing for somebody who is innocent of all charges. Anyway, if it really bothers you, maybe sometime in the future we can find a way for you to do something for me which does not involve an exchange of money. Now, forget all that, what's your next case and who is your lawyer?"

The lawyer for my next case was a woman called Belen, and she was trying to convince me to plead guilty even though she knew I was innocent. I never really understood that, unless she was an old friend of my ex, which in such a close knit community, was not beyond possibility. And even worse still, Belen had moved office and hadn't told me, so I knew not even where she was. Luckily Salvador knew her a little and called her on the phone and asked her to send all case papers to him, he was taking over."

A few days later Salvador went to the court with me, donned his lawyers gown and put up an excellent defence and won my case. Indeed, the lord had sent me a Saviour. Salvador helped me to clear a back log of cases and eventually I could see the light of day. Then, he had to go back to his private wealthy clients.

Well in what seemed no time at all the summer was upon us and Salvador told me he would like to go and visit the UK and did I know anybody who would do a house swap. This gave me a great idea.

I had a treasure chest of wonderful friends back in the UK and one particular old couple, Hannah and John who I had stayed with before, had another house in the north of England and a house in Spain. So I asked Hannah if she could entertain the idea of a house swap with Salvador and she was such a sweetheart she immediately said.... 

"Oh don't worry about no swap, we can go to our house up north and Salvador can stay as long as he likes Liam, as long as he feeds the cat. If he's a friend of yours that's good enough for us."

So all Salvador had to do was to pay for his flights to the UK for him, his wife and two boys. And yet another friend of mine would pick them up at Liverpool Airport and take them to Hanna's house fifty miles away. What a marvellous way to repay Salvador's favour of free legal services. And that was not an end to it.

Now, not only did I arrange that holiday for Salvador and his lovely family, I decided to go to the UK at the same time with my young son. I stayed with another friend and ex employer of mine, David's house across the road from Hannah's house. That way I got to hang out with Salvador and his family for a few days showing them round. It was a wonderful trip. Happy days.

Once back in Spain, despite Salvador's best efforts, my ex was building up yet more cases against me. Then Salvador had a brilliant solution to that as well.

A lot of my ex's cases were trivial or false. However, there was one case which on the surface had merit. The courts had awarded her child support at 250 euros a month. However, she had not only been very successful at destroying my career and leaving me with nothing, but she had stolen and sold a very expensive car of mine and kept all the money to herself. So, I took her to court and won the value of my car and deposit on a new apartment from her. The court awarded me 30,000 euros, plus interest of some 6,000 euros. Did I ever get it? A resounding no is the answer.

The only leverage I had was a family apartment she co-owned with her brothers and sisters on the coast. So I put a lien on that apartment which meant I could enforce the sale of that property at an auction so that her debt to me could be paid. Her family were furious with me as indeed she was.

Well, although at the beginning I had started to pay her child support, as part of an agreement between us, that she for her part would allow me access to my son and pay me the 36,000 euros she owed me, she never kept to her side of the deal. So, since her family apartment and child support where the only leverage I had, I tried to use that leverage to its maximum.

First I stopped paying her child support, and that resulted in her running to the courts to pursue her claim. Then I insisted on the lien being acted upon. All I was trying to do was to pull her into line for all of us, well that and survive. What she was trying to do was have it all her own way and destroy me.

Once again, Salvador came to the rescue. He told me that my ex's new lawyer was by pure chance one of his best friends, Antonio, from school days. And these guys had got their heads together and worked out a deal which would be beneficial to both me and my ex.

The idea was that I would cancel my big case against her, cancel the lien against her family apartment, and the 36,000 euros would serve as child support until such time as her debt to me was paid off.

Personally I thought it was a great idea as it would once and for all resolve all outstanding problems between us, her against me and me against her.

So, in a very intense meeting between me and Salvador and her and Antonio, we thrashed out the specifics of the deal. I was keen because it would mean that I would have over twelve years of child support covered by that 36000, and from there on I would be free of constantly running back and forth to the courts to answer her cases against me.

For her, she too could stop running to the courts and rest easy about her family apartment on the coast. As part of the agreement I would, of course, cancel the lien and inform the courts that the debt had been settled. Bingo, every one's a winner. Peace at last, praise the lord. Errrrrr, no!

Less than a year after we all signed the agreement, she changed her mind and started once again running to the courts for child support. All but one judges accepted my defence that the agreement was legally binding solution. One judge didn't accept the agreement as it was only ratified by her and my lawyers, but not by a court judge, and awarded her an enormous amount in arrears. Great.

So I said ok, so if she has broken the agreement, then me too, let's re-activate the award and the lien for the 36000 euros. Sadly I was informed that my case against her had been archived where it could only used as a point of reference, it could no longer be re-activated. 

In the end all that hard work by Salvador and Antonio was for nothing. Then further down the line, with the assistance of a corrupt lawyer who just wanted to get into her pants, she left the country and kidnapped my thirteen year old son. And, from 1500 miles away, at some secret hideout in England, she reported me to the courts for financial abandonment of my son and mounted multiple cases against me.

So she won and I lost. Well, not quite….I did eventually win my freedom from all that nightmare of an ex wife horror story and from her legal and personal persecution.

By this time I had met my lovely present Japanese wife and my new court appointed lawyer told me "Liam, your ex is not going to stop until she has totally ground you to dust. She's a real piece of work Liam. If you want my advice, just get the hell out of here and let her try to pursue you in Asia.

She will need a lot of money for lawyers who know Japanese for that. In time, if you are lucky, your son will come looking for you. Eight years later I am still waiting for that day to come.

Now for some this story may seem a bit on the heavy side, you wanna try living through it. However, having written about all the bad lawyers in the story in the interests of balance, I decided to write about the few good guys there are in the legal profession.

In the end, I was forced to move to Japan, not just to bring an end to my legal battles, but also by serious health issues arising from fifteen years of legal and personal persecution. 

Un-noticed by me, tests in Japan indicated that I had had both a stroke and what they call a silent heart attack. That is when you have a heart attack without suffering any signs.

Extensive tests showed that I also have PMR/GCA, COPD, Sleep Apnea, blocked arteries, damaged kidneys and border line diabetes. At the age of almost seventy I have more years behind me than ahead of me and all I have to show for fifty five years hard work is a small UK pension, and an even smaller Spanish one. Here on medium I work very hard to try to earn whatever supplementary money I can to ease the burden on my lovely wife.

I consider myself an amazingly lucky man. I have the most incredible woman who manages to work full time and to care for and look after me like a mother. So in the end, I really did win. 

And since I insist that I have a valid agreement to show, regardless of what my ex and any rogue judge has to say, I have paid all child support, so my conscience is clear on that score too. So all in all, I feel totally reborn, and you cannot ask for more than that

Love and peace to you all and have a nice day.