Meeting with my atty tomorrow...
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| Wed, 07-04-2007 - 3:31pm |
As I've posted recently, I have a lot of questions about how my divorce case and settlement was handled (or NOT handled) by my attorney. She assured me that I was getting a better deal than my X, but the research that my mom and I have done in the last month points in the opposite direction...
X has no loans on his business property, and did not claim that property as an asset on his financial statement to the court.
My atty claimed that my house was valued higher than the business, but a trip to the town assessor's office proved otherwise.
I am paying a 50K line of credit that was taken out on the marital home, which it turns out was 100% spent on X's business. X lied about the line of credit-- told my atty that it was spent on paying off my car, credit card bills and house repairs.
My share of the business was $15K-- of which I actually received $6,400.
I have no car, because X took the plates off the family car (which has been in my possession for 10 years, altho' it's registered in his name-- I pay all the costs for this car)-- X has at least 5 cars he can drive. It turns out that I am paying the note on the car-- it was paid off in a refi we did on the house in 2002. So, I am paying the note, repairs, insurance, registration on the car, and he sees fit to take it away.
So, at the time of the settlement, X's place was valued at 340,900. It doesn't appear that he has any loans on his property there. His parents gave us 50K to start another buisness there. This was not a loan.
At the time of the settlement, my house was valued at 281,300. We had a 65K mortgage and the 50K line of credit (which X lied about). I am continuing to pay both loans to the bank. The line of credit-- when I ordered the account info from the bank (which I didn't know I COULD do-- I'd asked my atty about this last summer, and she took X's atty's word that it was spent on the house, instead of getting the info from the bank... my aty KNEW that my X controlled our finances, and that I knew nothing of where the money went)-- turns out my X only PAID THE INTEREST on this for 5 years. At this point, the interest is $350 a month!!! He never paid on the principal. We're talking 13K in interest paid out over 5 years, and just $200 paid on the principal.
I hope my atty can explain this. Me? I think I got screwed over.
Any advice or suggestions for my meeting tomorrow?
Thanks in advance, and Happy 4th!

No advice, except to stay strong and calm so you get the answers you need to get.
Good Luck!
Julie
I am so sorry...I hope you had a good talk with your attorney and what sounds like a half done job advocating for you.
Hope things go well.
I think you have the facts that you need.... just be calm and professional about getting what's FAIR.
Good luck, and let us know how it goes.
Karen ~ wildlucky4me
Karen ~ wildlucky4me ~
Met with my attorney yesterday, here's a rundown of what happened:
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Her take on this was "he relinquished his right to the equity in the marital home", so it's OK if I carry his 50K loan. GRRRRRRR
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Her take on this was, "we don't go by what it's valued at, but fair market price". That doesn't seem right.
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Her take on this was "Don't you remember going over this? He said that some of the line of credit *MAY* have been spent on the business." I told her "100% of the line of credit was spent on the business. He absolutely KNEW that it was all spent on his business-- I have his checks from 12/05 to 5/06, and the only loans paid were for the mortgage and the line of credit. For the house mortgage, he wrote the account number and the house address on the memo line. For the line of credit, he ONLY wrote the account number. He just railroaded the line of credit onto me when you asked him if the mortgage was 110K. If we'd had this info last year, when I asked you about it, we wouldn't be here."
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We went to court over this, and the idiot judge ruled that my X wasn't required to pay for my Durango... her ruling read as if I asked him to pay the Durango costs. I'VE been paying for the Durango for over a year; AND the rental car after my X took the plates off the Durango in April. My lawyer said, "I don't know what to tell you. That's how the judge read the agreement."
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Her take on this was, "Remember, he said that the property may be contaminated, so it was deemed to be valued under what it is assessed at." I replied, "That was SUCH a load of BS-- because in the next breath, he said he wanted custody of DS, and that they would live at the business in his apartment. This year, he went before the town and asked if he could build a BIGGER apartment there. So much for the contamination story."
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Her take on this was, "Well, he never produced his documentation." AH HA!!! She screwed up ROYALLY! WHY the heck did she proceed with a settlement for me if all the paperwork wasn't in?!?!? She ASSURED me that I was getting an excellent deal-- I thought she HAD all this info last August. All she had to tell the judge was that we couldn't proceed with a settlement until X produced bank info.
I have a consultation with another attorney on Tuesday. My lawyer is reluctant to go back into court, because she knows she messed this up. She will try to go for higher child support though...
I told her that I have tapped out my relatives as far as loans to help me pay the mortgage. The line fo credit is killing me-- I'm ONLY paying the interest, because X messed that up, so it's $350 a month just for interest. My atty told me, "Just file for disability." I said, "WHA?? It takes a year to do that-- HOW is that going to help me if I have to pay the mortgage NOW?"
Smile,
Deirdre
Yeah, my current attorney was pretty patronizing at our meeting. Her attitude was, and in fact she STATED to me: "I don't want to look at any papers today"-- after I emailed her and told her I wanted to see *in black and white* where I got a fair shake.
I just got back from my meeting with the new lawyer. He seems really nice, and I went over the bulk of the case with him. Here's some of the high points of our meeting:
He asked how much Atty B. charged me. When I told him 25K, he told me that was about 5 times as much as she should have charged, considering the outcome, for what she did, AND for the number of times we went to court. Also, he said that she should have had me sign a fee contract, and sent me itemized statements of the work done. I told him that I did ask Atty B. for an itemized statement, and that Atty B told me that if she itemized it, it would far exceed the 25K amount she quoted me. He said that was a serious red flag.
He said that Atty B. was very sloppy, and really dropped the ball-- my mom and I did the bulk of the work, and it's work Atty B. should have done before committing me to a settlement-- work I THOUGHT she'd done!... X leaving the business property valuation off the financial forms submitted to the court-- she should have picked up on that, and a number of other things.
He said there's 2 avenues that we can take. #1 is to go the legal malpractice route. #2 is to try to have the separation agreement set aside... he said the chances of that in itself happening is slim, BUT if we can prove legal malpractice on Atty B's part, and that looks very possible, then we might have a chance.
He left a voice mail with a another atty who will be able to handle one of the 2 routes we can take.
He said I have the right to dispute her 25K fee... and gave me the numbers of legal entities that will oversee this.
He wants to meet with me and my mom next Tuesday evening.
Karen ~ wildlucky4me
Karen ~ wildlucky4me ~