Cross-posted to both Divorce and Custody sections in hopes that someone with the right expertise will see it, hope that's ok...
My question involves a marriage in the state of Washington, with divorce filed in Clark County, Nevada.
*Phew*, this is a complicated one, I am trying to find an attorney to help me figure it out, but I just wanted to see if anyone here can lend any insight before I start having to borrow money. :/
Jun 2002: My ex-wife and I were married in Whatcom County, WA
Sep 2003: Our son was born. (There is no question of paternity, I'm on the birth certificate, and have a WA child support administrative order and ex-wife isn't challenging paternity.)
Apr 2005: We split up and (after living together in Whatcom County the whole time) my ex went to stay with her sister in Las Vegas for six weeks in order to qualify for a quick "no-fault" divorce. Her mom drafted the divorce papers and mailed them to me in Whatcom County. In the custody/family plan section of the papers, it said that there were zero children in the marriage, even though our son was one year old at the time. Ex-mom-in-law convinced me that since ex-wife and son were moving right back to WA, it would just be easier to do it that way to get the divorce over with and we would do the parenting plan here in WA. I was 22 at the time, and naive, and without the benefit of counsel, and they put pressure on me over the phone, and I just signed the papers they sent me and mailed them back without it really occurring to me that we were committing perjury/fraud.
2005–2012: Ex-wife and I continued to live in Whatcom County, and co-parented informally, without ever filing a parenting plan, with ex-wife having primary residence and me usually having my son overnight two/three nights a week. I asked her to negotiate a parenting plan multiple times, and she kept leading me on to believe that she would, and then backing out at the last minute.
Dec/Jan 2013: Ex-wife basically had a mental breakdown, and her family took my son and her other two younger kids (no involved fathers) to Las Vegas for their safety and well-being, without giving me the chance to take my (now 9-year old) son. Ex-wife continues to reside in Whatcom County.
Feb 2013: In order to try and get my son back in Whatcom County, I filed a Summons/Petition/Proposed Parenting Plan, pro se, in Whatcom County Superior Court, since this is where both parents currently reside, and where our son resided his entire life until this January.
Ex-wife defaulted on the 20-day Response deadline, but filed a Notice of Appearance pro se, and then finally lawyered up and filed her Response (two weeks late but just in time to stop my Motion for Default). She alleges that she is planning to move to Las Vegas and is merely waiting for her Section 8 housing voucher to be transferred to NV (she submitted no proof that she has applied to transfer, but the Commissioner is taking her word for it; I don't know whether she really plans to move or not, but if so, she only decided to do so last week right before she filed her Response, based on verbal conversations I had with her before she finally appeared and filed)
Neither my wife or I filed the Final Order from the 2005 NV divorce, but the Commissioner wants to see it to see if NV reserved jurisdiction over family plan etc. She doesn't know yet that it says there were no children, and I have NO IDEA what the fraudulent divorce filing is going to do to the case here once it gets filed. (I don't imagine it'll make much difference that my ex-wife/mom-in-law drafted and filed it: I signed it too, so I'm just as guilty of perjury/fraud as they are.)
The questions that I'm fervently hoping someone can shed some light on are:
a) What does the fraudulent divorce filing mean for jurisdiction as it stands now?
b) If I file in Clark County, NV to “set aside” the divorce as fraudulent, does that mean my ex and I are still legally married? Can I then file for dissolution in Whatcom County? Would this clear up any question of NV having jurisdiction? Would either/both of us likely be charged with perjury/fraud in NV?
c) Or would "setting aside" the NV divorce simply require us to amend/correct the custody/family plan portion of the NV divorce filing and make a family plan in that jurisdiction?
I realize this is a bit of a doozy, and every attorney I talk to here just gets big ol’ dollar signs in their eyes thinking about how complicated it is, so I'm really really hoping someone can just help me mentally unravel it a little bit.