my lawyer neglected to follow up on information regarding my husbands assets and told me that I was not entitled to spouse the money we saved while we were married
Robert H. GermanDUI / DWI AttorneySpring Lake, MI ·
Attorney malpractice is becoming more prevalent in Michigan. In many other states, Divorce attorneys get sued all of the time. The saying is in FLA, if you can get it from your spouse, get it from your lawyer. My best answer is for you to find a lawyer who deals with divorce malpractice cases. Most malpractice cases have many problems which can make or break the case. Generally speaking whatever property which was obtained during the course of the marriage is a marital asset. However, that has exceptions. Questions such as did your lawyer conduct discovery such as interrogatories, depositions other procedures which are completed to determine what assets are involved in the marriage. Is your spouse hiding assets. How long was the marriage. A general rule is anything 5 years or more, spousal support (alimony) can become an issue. It does not mean that you or your spouse may be entitled to spousal support but the 5 year time frame is the trigger to investigate that issue. The only way to tell what happened and if anything happened is your lawyer the cause of the problem is to consult with a legal malpractice lawyer. The Michigan Bar referral agency can assist you if you cannot find one on your own. Kalamazoo should be a place to start. Many good malpractice lawyers will come from out of your area because local lawyers may not want to get involved. One other issue will be what damages do you have because of the lawyers malpractice? Typically legal mal. lawyers work on a contingency fee taking a third or 40% of the settlement. If there is a lot of money involved, there may be a great deal of interest in your case. If not, then the lawyers may not be too interested because, unfortunately, most lawyers dealing with legal mal just want to get the money. Therefore, the only way you will know if you have a good case is to speak with several lawyers if necessary. You should find someone who you will feel comfortable with. I wish you good luck.
Because it was a settlement, you agreed to the terms of the settlement. How do you know now that he did not follow up on assets, but did not know that back then? If you could have known that those were outstanding issues, you should not have agreed to the settlement. Your best option is to contact another family law attorney to obtain a second opinion.
There is no simple answer to your question. Final divorce judgements are most often derived from compromise. That necessarily means that the parties to a divorce often voluntarily sacrifice the benefits of going to trial for the security of contractual agreed upon mutually agreed upon divorce judgement terms. For some, after the divorce is finalized, "judgement remorse" is not unusual.
If you feel that the explanation above does not apply to your specific divorce case, you should consult with a competent divorce attorney.
To set aside a judgment of divorce is extremely difficult. To sue the lawyer for malpractice is also difficult. You can consult with a lawyer who does legal malpractice for an opinion.
