Letter from my atty
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| Sun, 07-15-2007 - 5:02pm |
This was in my mailbox when I got home a little while ago.
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After talking with you several days ago, It appears quite clear that you are unhappy with the divorce settlement, and in addition, you are unhappy with the work I did for you.
However, at the time of the final divorce hearing, taking into account all the various factors as far as assets and debts, I felt you got a good settlement. Remember, you could have gone to trial, but chose not to. A year later, as a result of the strained real estate market and the fact that you have barely worked all year your financial situation is not good.
Based on this unforeseen hardship, I am willing to reduce my bill by 25% to $15,000. However, I cannot continue to do any work for you without knowing whether in fact you plan to pay me at all.
If you agree to accept this offer, and have my fees taken out of the of the pricipal, please let me know in writing.
Very truly yours,
Attorney B.>>
And this is my response to her. Any advice or suggestions?
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In response to your letter of July 12, 2007, yes, I am unhappy with the divorce settlement, but not for the reason/s that you outlined. I understand that sometimes people are unhappy with their divorce settlements, but I feel that due to information I have uncovered in my recent research, the work you did on my case was filled with slip-ups and mistakes.
Yes, you are correct that I chose not to go to trial, but that decision was based on your repeated assurances that I was getting a fair, if not better settlement than my ex-husband was.
The truth of the matter is that at the time of the settlement last August, you evidently did not have all the information that was essential to my making a truly informed decision about the settlement. You took the word of parties that had continually tried to manipulate the information and situation to their advantage in their attempt to swindle me out of what was rightfully mine. I am of course, referring to the line of credit, the so-called “contamination” of the business property, and the alleged “loans” from my former in-laws.
When I emailed you on May 31, 2007 to tell you that I had gotten copies of the line of credit checks and the account information, your response to me on June 1, 2007 was, “Good idea!”—which is utterly ludicrous. Had I not mentioned to my mother that one of the loans was a line of credit, I would not have known there were checks issued to this account, and thus would still be in the dark about this issue, even though I asked you repeatedly where the money went. Why didn’t you obtain this information from Attorney A a year ago?
In an email from you, dated June 4, 2007, you stated that Attorney A verbally told you that the line of credit was used for the house. In fact, as a result of my research this year, several months after the settlement, I found out that every penny of the line of credit was spent on my ex-husband’s business. When I told you that I was concerned about this information, you were dismissive and stated several times, “It’s only $50,000. It’s water under the bridge, and a moot point. We went over this; it’s settled.” I thought that you had gotten this information back in August of 2006. In point of fact, you did not get written proof from Attorney A or my ex-husband about what the money was spent on, including bank statements and checks, and they dumped my ex husband’s debt onto me. Shockingly, my ex-husband still has the checks issued to this account!
Also disturbing, is that in looking over my divorce documentation, I found a reference to the line of credit being used for my ex-husband’s business in the Discoveries and Interrogatories, which were returned back to you in November 2005.
My ex-husband took $1,699.85 out of my financial settlement from August 31, 2006 to December 29, 2006 to pay what should have been his debt for the line of credit. Because I was unaware that this was in actuality my ex-husband’s debt, because you had assured me that I was paying on a household debt—I have paid $1,374.34 from January 2007 to July 2007 on this line of credit. This blunder has cost me $3,074.19; and this line of credit should have been my ex-husband’s to pay from the date of our divorce onward.
The so-called “contamination” of my ex-husband’s property was a legalized ploy to try to devalue the amount of our combined assets… after the previous ploy of my ex-husband’s parents attempting to pass off gifts as loans, and could not prove that they were loans. My ex-husband went before the Board of Appeals this year, and plans to expand the apartment at the so-called “contaminated” property. If it is so contaminated, why does he have children living there? He wanted our son to live there; there are two new houses being built abutting this “contaminated” property, as well as active cranberry bogs and crop irrigation reservoirs.
You also urged me to give up the only vehicle I had driven for 9 years, despite the fact that my ex-husband had at least four cars to drive for himself. Three and a half months after I was prevented from the right to drive that vehicle, I am still without a car of my own to transport me to my job, and have to borrow my son’s vehicle. This is appalling, because I am still paying the note on the Durango, I have paid the expenses on this car and my ex-husband took money out of my financial settlement to pay for the registration and insurance.
It also appears that you did not tell me about offers of a replacement vehicle from my ex-husband.
I fail to see how this is a “good settlement”. I trusted you to look out for my legal interests, but it appears that you did not.
Most disturbing of all, is when I emailed you that I wanted to see in black and white that I received a fair settlement, you stated at our meeting on July 5, 2007 that you didn’t want to look at any papers. You also stated that my ex-husband never produced all of his documentation—why on earth did you commit me to a settlement without having all the information essential to make an informed decision?
Due to these issues, I regret that I have to dispute your bill, which you originally quoted me as $25,000. I feel that due to the outcome of the divorce settlement in light of the new information—information I thought you had investigated thoroughly and properly more than a year ago—your bill is excessive.
Yours truly,
SusieYippin>>
Edited 7/15/2007 6:15 pm ET by susieyippin

I am unable ot give legal or medical advice. My opinions are based on my experiences and my personal research.
Let me see....
Karen ~ wildlucky4me ~
Don't forget the "strained real estate market", LOL! I'd have had less trouble paying my mortgage if I hadn't had to shell out an additional 3K that was spent on paying my X's line of credit.
I agree with previous posters about seeking out the state bar association ethics committee. Perhaps your new attorney could give you guidance on this. From your other posts (such as the lack of an itemized bill), sounds like you've got quite a case on your hands.
Good luck and stick to it.
I am unable ot give legal or medical advice. My opinions are based on my experiences and my personal research.
Yes, I think you need to prove your attorney failed in her fiduciary duty/malpractice before you could re-open the settlement.
I wonder what it would cost you in new attorney fees to do that, though.
Sounds like your X stuck it to you. Hope you are successful.
GL
M
It'll be worth the money... I would save on the 50K line of credit going back to my X, and be compensated for monies paid out to that account; hopefully my fee with Atty B would be reduced; maybe I can get my car back, and save on having to purchase a new one...
I'm sure my X is having a great laugh at my expense, since he's saved 3K by dumping his line of credit on me, and doesn't have to pay $350 a month (just in interest, he never paid on the principal!). No wonder he's had such an arrogant, holier-than-thou attitude.
Susie:
In some states, such as my own, part of the divorce paperwork is a statement of your assests, which has to include all debts, assests, etc that you had together, and each of you individually. Ex. I had some savings bonds which were given to me as a toddler. They were never used in any way during my marriage, and still have not been cashed, but they are listed as one of my individual assests in my divorce. Check your settlement paperwork, you probably have a similar document somewhere. If some substantial part of what your XH indicates are the assests are incorrect, you can likely get your settlement reopened due to fraud.
Another thought - you attny sounds questionable at best, but it isn't an attnys job to investigate the accuracy of info provided by your XH. If she got you a "good settlement" for the situation in which all info provided by your XH was true, then she did her job. You need a PI or forensic accountant or similar to ivestigate your XHs finances and yours at the time of your settlement. This may get you the evidence that you need for showing the fraud.
I know this isn't what you want to hear, but you may be able to stick it to the XH ;)
~Kristi
Hi Kristi,
Thanks for your reply-- my X did have to fill out a financial statement for the court, but he lied on it. He did not list the value of the business property, or the SUV that he claims he owns. The lawyer didn't pick up on that; my mom was the one who saw that he didn't list the business property (which was valued higher than our marital home).
My attorney missed the line of credit listed on the D&I 2 years ago-- that was an admission by my X that the line of credit was used for the business... technically, the line of credit was taken out on the house, but 100% of it was used for the business. I did all the numbers myself recently, and the separation agreement my attorney committed me to was not equitable. At the very least, my attorney should have gotten proof of something as large as a 50K loan, and she didn't do that at all. In looking over the divorce history, she was just chasing her tail for most of the time.