Hi toomanydogs,
What are your concerns with your current Attorney?
Panda39
Hi Panda,
I think she's lying to me, or perhaps slightly misrepresenting legal positions in order to get me to move forward on the divorce.
For example, I believe there is a conflict of interest in my case. When I married I was required to sign a prenup. I will call the lawyer who drafted the prenup, Jack. My FIL, who administers the trust, my STBX and I lived on, hired a XYZ Law Firm to represent the interests of the trust in the divorce proceeding. Jack is of counsel on XYZ.
My L, call her Gina, first told me there wasn't a conflict because Jack is "of counsel." She now tells me she doesn't remember saying that.
I let Gina know six months ago that I was uncomfortable with the XYZ law firm being involved because of Jack's association.
She keeps telling me that she can guarantee that Jack has not revealed anything about me to XYZ.
I have a problem with that because it is impossible for her to guarantee anything about another person. She doesn't know.
She has advised me to waive conflict for six months. I asked her if I waived could I then at a later day revoke that waiver. Originally, she told me no. Now she's telling me I can revoke.
Then she told me that her law firm's "research" showed that I can sign a "partial" waiver of conflict. She wrote one up for me to sign so we could file it with the court.
In that "partial" waiver, she misrepresented my meeting with Jack, saying I met with him 2 weeks before I signed the prenup in order to negotiate it. I didn't. Jack drafted that prenup with my FIL's direction, not mine.
The prenup waives my right to alimony--not permissible in my state. Jack never told me that. He put language in it that says if the issue of alimony is to be found unenforceable that would not negate the rest of the prenup.
She also wrote in that partial waiver that I "believed and felt" that I could sign a partial waiver of conflict without "prejudice" and that I "believed and felt" that I could revoke the partial at any time and not waive my rights concerning the conflict of interest.
Throughout the interaction regarding the partial waiver, she intended to file it with the court. After I redrafted it and fixed the error and changed "believe and felt" to my lawyer has advised, she told me we don't need to file it, she only needs it for her office.
I start writing all this (and there's more that she's done, including telling me how she was mentored by XYZ and she knows Jack personally that makes me distrust her ability to represent me) and I'm left thinking I need a new lawyer.
Crap. You know? Just crap. My STBX left a year ago. If I hire a new attorney, I have to start over, and how do I know I'm going to be any more comfortable with someone new?
The stress of this past year, including my FIL cutting me off completely from any money from November to April, had totally undone me. In the midst of all this, I've put two dogs down since April. My kids keep telling me to sign the waiver of conflict and move forward. I'm feeling pretty alone in all this because it feels like people aren't really understanding what it feels like for me. I feel betrayed by my STBX, my FIL, and to a certain extent by my lawyer.
Thanks, Panda.
TMD
