divorce and attorneys
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divorce and attorneys
| Mon, 08-20-2007 - 10:26am |
I hired an attorney to handle a divorce for me. This was in Feb. 2006. In March 2007 I found out that my attorney never filed for divorce, never filed motions for fee waivers or for support from my H for me. I found this out when someone asked me about a "docket" number. I went to the courthouse and found out that nothing was filed on my behalf. I have contacted the Bar association, they can do nothing. I have been going on with this for months now. I have sent letters and made phone calls to the grieveance committee about this attorney. I just received another letter from the attorney stating that my file is in the mail. The attorney has told me this before, (back in May) as you guessed it nothing was sent to me, incliding my retainer fee. This I feel has damaged my divorce case considerably. My H is now in the process of having me served with divorce papers, that because of the time that has lasped, I no longer can use adultry or emotional abuse. He says that he is not going to pay me any alimony at all. We have been married almost 32 years, he says he gave me enough. I worked throughout our marriage too. My jobs were small jobs due to me working around his work schedule and the kids school schedules. He always told me to not worry about finding a job that would offer health insurance or any kind of retirement fund. He said that i will always be on his. Now that he has OW in his life, he wants to have her on his insurance and on as beneficiary of his policy that always had me as the beneficiary. For the record, his OW does not work, she is on disability, she does drugs and is violent towards my H. He chose it, I just don't thing its right or fair that she get the security that I worked towards for many years. I also am not working, I am not collecting disability, I closed out the joint checking account 2 weeks agao and have been living on the money that I withdrew from it. It is almost gone now, I have been seeing a therapists. I don't know what my next step should be with this attorney. I do have an appointment on Wednesday for a free consultation with another attorney, however, if I don't find a job soon I will not be able to hire another attorney, which by the way I am very leary about doing. My H knows my situation, he is making fun of my hardships. This from a man that married me almost 32 years ago. Thanks for listening, I wish you all the best.

I suggest that you march in this attorney's office and physically pick up your file. As far as the money goes send him a letter telling him that you expect a full reimbursement of the retainer you paid and you expect it by XXX day. If you don't recieve it you can and should file malpractice against him. Not all attorney's are as useless as this one, so don't let him destroy your confidence in them. I work with attorney's all the time and believe it or not there are some very careing ones out there that would love to take on a case such as yours. Since you are on disability you probably are eligable for some sort of legal aid as well for the divorce, but not necessarily for the malpractice.
As far as your husband and his threats, that's all they are...threats! He knows your weakness's and he's using them to initmidate you. Keep you in your place so to speak. Pull yourself up by the bootstraps and get ready to fight back. And yes, you will need an attorney to do so. But after 32 years he can NOT just walk away and leave you with nothing! I have a hard time believing that any judge would allow that to happen.
Good luck, and I hope it all works out for you.
I'm sure that with a little leg work you can find an attorney that would love to take on your case of malpractice. Of course your going to have to prove that he did indeed NOT do as you instructed him to do in the first place. Do you have any documentation, letters written from the bad attroney, or anything that says he didn't follow your instructions? Go to another town if necessary to find an attorney. You want one that isn't in the "good ol boy" club and isn't afraid to take on a buddy.
It's awfully arrogant of your H's GF to assume that you case is anything like hers. I'm sure that if she didn't get anything from her D's it's for good reason. That's like comparing apples to oranges. Keep all the documentation you have and use it if you can. Don't worry about the "he said, she said" aspect. When it all comes down to the nitty gritty it's going to depend on what you can prove. Your divorce attorney will know how to best advise you. Pay attention to him/her and go for broke.
Best Wishes