erroneous judgement against principle of natural justice?

Question

soon after the respondent leaves usa on visit to relatives in foreign country,the petioner takes away all the money/belongings belonging to the respondent and issues threats to the respondent for the safety of the life if , the respondent choose to return to usa and manifest effectively the repondents inability to appear for the trial. the respondent informs the presiding judge of this happenings. The citation is served at eleventh hour knowing well of responedents limitations of money and time required to travel to usa. Even then the presiding judge gives exparty judgement as demanded by petioner, harming the repondent.It is felt that such ruling by the presiding judge is against the principal of natural jusice and is unfair by all standerds of ethics. the repondents under threat of life and lack of money. is unable to visit usa and appeal against this judgement.
what are options available? who are the officials of usa govt or lawyers who can help such victims on humanitary ground

Answer 1

I am of the opinion that the presiding judge is well within his right to record a fiding exparte and it is not in violation of the principle of natural justice, so long as the respondent was given due notice of the proceedings according him an opportunity to be heard. The principle of natural justice does not mean that no order can be passed without hearing the parties concerned. It only requires that the parties before the forum should be given an opportunity to being heard. If the respondent had any difficulty in appearing before the judicial forum, like paucity of funds or threat to life, that is an entirely different matter. There were several options before him to meet such situations. Paucity of funds cannot be a valid ground for non-appearance. It is upto him to fend for himself to protect his own interests. I am sure there are provisions in the law prevailing in the USA, as it is in many other countries, for free legal aid for the indigent citizens. He could have availed of free legal aid. As regards the intimidation, which purportedlty detained him from appearance, it was open to him to lodge a criminal complaint against the petitioner and a copy of the complaint, if produced before the judge, would have weighed in his favour, for further adjournemetnt of his case.

Now, that the matter has come to an end, before the learned judge, he has got two options. One is that he file a petition for review before the very same judge who passed the order and the second one is preferring an appeal before the appeallate authoruity. You may do this through a legal aid forum, if any available.

Answer 2

Appeal the case in the higher court and prove that the lower court abused its authority. Make a prayer for the return of the properties. Cite valid reasons and present enough evidence to invalidate the judgment.