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  Posted to group - What do i do now    <<Previous    Next>>

Unbelievable..

No one will ever believe this....I have been in the process of divorce for over 8 years. I filed the first time and when we went to court, my husband (who ran our jointly owned business) told me that there were tax issues and we needed to wait out the statute of limitations in order to save thousands of dollars and avoid issues with the IRS. I found out years later, that was a lie. But, I was a stay at home mom who trusted what he told me. This move on his part gave him years to steal and hide maritial assets mostly money. 3 years ago, I filed again. He had been playing money games with me and not giving me money to pay bills and take care of our 3 children. My first attoney billed me for over $13,000 in the first 6 months. I fired her. Then the second attorney billed me over $10,000 and didn't even get me close to a divorce. It was all consultation. I fired him. The third attorney was smooth at first and nice in the initial visit and when he took my $5,000, but after that he would yell at me and belittle me. During all this, I have sold everything I can get my hands on, worked 2 jobs, cashed in my retirement and I was still getting horrible service. Every battle my husband and I had in the court room, I lost. My attorney threated to resign several times, which I should have let him do, but I kept thinking, it would be over soon. Now here we are almost 3 years later with more set backs than should ever happen. My husband and I met with the attorneys and came to an agreement on Feb. 18, 2008. But the day after we signed it (which was also signed by our judge) my husband found out that he was being audited by the IRS. He has committed fraud, but that is not my problem. We have been seperated for over 9 years, so I was unaware of what he was doiing with his taxes, etc. So my husband decided that he did not want ot go through with the agreement, becuase of potential fines, so we went back to court. Supposedly, (I never saw the judge this whole time) the judge decided to go with my husband and lower the child support by $200 (which had been agreed upon 2 months earlier). When my husbands attorney drew up the papers, sudeenly there were items in this new settlement that were not in the original. Now my attorney is threatening to withdraw from my case if I don't sign the papers that have really bad items for me. What do I do?

by Leeh   1 Post 
Posted on 4/18/2008 7:12 AM
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Answers for "Unbelievable.."  (2) (You must be logged in to answer)




Ouch. I'm an attorney and I'm afraid to answer your question because I'm not so sure you are going to like what I have to say.

 

You made a huge mistake firing your first attorney over billing. Divorce, when there is a lot of disagreement - is expensive - and those initial months require A LOT of billable hours doing research (especially if there is an IRS & financial issues) back and forth with his attorney etc...

$13,000 isn't that much when you are dealing with the issues you have mentioned, and I'm sure there were MANY more than what is here. If your attorney charged let's say $175 an hour (conservative number) that is only 74 hours of time invested. In six months, that is a reasonable amount of hours to spend on a case of your magnitude, and a reasonable bill.

then your 2nd attorney, all the consultation was to get up to speed on what was going on - then you fired them before anything could happen.

now you have attorney #3 - who probably considers you a hostile client since you have already fired two other attorneys.

You could go to attorney #4 - but the judge is going to have a real problem with you at that point - and may force the settlement, not unlike the attorney you have now is pressuring you to do.

 

what doesn't make sense is if you had a final agreement that was signed by the judge how it was able to be overturned - unless you agreed to it. You could have said no, the original agreement stands & have been done with it.

 

Child support was lowered because of his tax fraud, his income was probably reported incorrectly, and the judge based the CS on new evidence.

What is it that is in this new settlement that is so bad for you after 8 years of disagreements?

I hate to say it, but if you had stuck with your original attorney and dealt with the fees, understanding that it is just the nature of an ugly divorce, this would have been over a long time ago.

by spaznskitz   3855 Posts
Posted on 4/19/2008 4:42 AM
0





Wow,  my head is spinning as I am sure yours is as well.  I am surprised  the child support was lowered, why?  The court should not have lowered it because of his IRS issues. I am not an attorney but this seems crazy.  I wish I could help you more but I am sure you will get other responses. For now just try and move on.  You have spent almost 10 years of your life fighting this and this can not be healthy for you or your child.
by Barkley   912 Posts
Posted on 4/18/2008 11:50 AM
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