Can I report my divorce attorney
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Hopefulmama
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Member since 4/14 1014 total posts
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Can I report my divorce attorney
Divorced people and attorneys, please tell me if this is Normal or if it is the supreme misconduct I think it is. My lawyer - who has been avoidant and evasive this entire process - finally called me into his office in April to sign the final divorce papers. He told me it would be finallized by the judge in 3-6 months. Well my ex had an attorney friend look up the index number in August and it looks like it was never filed. I called the lawyer - who has been an impossoble a$$hole the whole time - and the secretary acted like she was expecting my call and said, like it was no big deal, that I had to "sign some more papers." When I asked her WTF, I signed the final papers in April, she put me on hold, came back, and said my lawyer drew up the wrong papers - a separation agreement instead of divorce. She also said she cannot get me in to sign these papers until SEPT 5!!!! To make things more confusing, I asked if my ex would have to sign the new papers too and she said no??? And I asked my ex - is there anyway HIS lawyers would have missed that it was the wrong agreement? He said absolutely not and it wouldn't matter because they are the same agreement. I smell major shadiness and want to know what my options are.
Message edited 8/18/2017 12:42:09 PM.
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Posted 8/18/17 12:33 PM |
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Re: Can I report my divorce attorney
Posted by Hopefulmama
Divorced people and attorneys, please tell me if this is Normal or if it is the supreme misconduct I think it is. My lawyer - who has been avoidant and evasive this entire process - finally called me into his office in April to sign the final divorce papers. He told me it would be finallized by the judge in 3-6 months. Well my ex had an attorney friend look up the index number in August and it looks like it was never filed. I called the lawyer - who has been an impossoble a$$hole the whole time - and the secretary acted like she was expecting my call and said, like it was no big deal, that I had to "sign some more papers." When I asked her WTF, I signed the final papers in April, she put me on hold, came back, and said my lawyer drew up the wrong papers - a separation agreement instead of divorce. She also said she cannot get me in to sign these papers until SEPT 5!!!! To make things more confusing, I asked if my ex would have to sign the new papers too and she said no??? And I asked my ex - is there anyway HIS lawyers would have missed that it was the wrong agreement? He said absolutely not and it wouldn't matter because they are the same agreement. I smell major shadiness and want to know what my options are.
You are kinda stuck
If you get another attorney, you have to pay your balance and whatever fees you owe to get your file from the current attorney. Then you will have to pay another retainer to basically have someone file the papers.
You can make a bar complaint. But that will not make him work any faster to be totally honest.
I will say, I have worked for attorneys for 15 years, and I am divorced, I am NOT sticking up for the attorney AT ALL, but shit does happen. It sort of sounds like the secretary is a. either talking out of her ass or b. They lost your papers.
Mine was held up because my lawyer's paralegal thought that my ex's attorney (he didn't have one, she fired him) was filing them.
If you are still really pissed off after everything is done, file a bar complaint. But IDK if you'll get anywhere with it. I've never seen it happen, especially for a clerical error
ETA: It's also possible that even though you signed the final papers in April, the judge requires more and they didn't know that.
Message edited 8/18/2017 1:49:47 PM.
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Posted 8/18/17 1:48 PM |
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sameinitials
insert creative comment here
Member since 2/12 1998 total posts
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Can I report my divorce attorney
I understand why you're super pissed/frustrated that things weren't filed, but this definitely isn't supreme misconduct. It's sloppiness, sure (assuming that what the secretary said is true), but I doubt it rises to the level of anything the bar assoc would deal with.
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Posted 8/18/17 6:28 PM |
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