I thought it was very nice of Justice Feuer to spend 32 pages carefully analyzing this appeal, which affirmed the trial court's rejection of a self-represented litigant's attempt to vacate a marital dissolution judgment in which she failed to show up for trial (or respond to discovery, or basically do anything). The opinion exhaustively discusses the relevant evidence, is very careful about the underlying standards, and takes the issues seriously. All this despite the fact that, in my view, the proper outcome is crystal clear, particularly since the trial judge found the appellant not credible (for more than sufficient reasons).
I certainly feel bad for the appellant, and am confident that Justice Feuer does too. She was clearly depressed during a period of time, and did not handle her divorce (or mental health during that period) well. But she had plenty of notice and plenty of opportunities to show up, and failed to do so, even as she was able to successfully participate in a variety of events. So, yes, I feel bad, but the proper result is fairly clear. (I'm also quite confident that the trial court rightly awarded custody of the children to the father under the circumstances.)
One thing that you learn about the appellant midway through the opinion is that she's an attorney, which is ironic given her failure to appear in the divorce action. If there's anything you'd think an attorney would know to do, it's to keep in touch with her attorney and/or show up at trial.
But I get it. She was depressed. She simply didn't want to deal. Not a sufficient excuse under the particular circumstances here (and given the evidence presented below), but understandable.
Parenthetically, I also thought it was interesting that when I looked up the appellant's name on the State Bar's website. All three of the attorneys with that same name ("Susan Diamond") are currently ineligible to practice law. The one at issue here (in LA) is suspended for failure to pay child support, failure to pay bar fees, and failure to satisfy the MCLE; the second (a fellow HLS grad!) just recently went inactive last year after practicing law for 40 years; and the third (in Sacramento) was suspended just four months ago for client trust account noncompliance (oops!).
Three for three.
Anyway, a very nice opinion by Justice Feuer, who clearly gives this appeal the careful attention it deserves (and perhaps even more).
