Separation agreement and Quit Claim deed

What is the name of your state?I posted this over in Real Estate, but I also needed an answer to the Separation Agreement questions too Thanks in advance.

What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania

My wife and I separated in February and I continued to contribute to the house and other bills while we were separated. I am now going to get an apartment and we are in the process of separating the finances. We started in May, and decided everything together very amicably. We have a 6 year old, and we agreed on support and everything. She took everything to her lawyer and he put together a Separation Agreement draft for us to go over and sign and return to him. This entire process is costing $2000, which seems very steep to me, but she agreed to pay $1500 because it is her lawyer.

Anyway, we have waited 2 months and even she is sick of waiting. As of receiving the draft, we owed $875 and we are going to pay that and use the draft as our agreement. IN the agreement, she receives full ownership of our house via a quit claim deed. On the deed and the mortgage is my wife and my mother (I have some credit issues).

I have a couple questions here. First, since I am very weary of lawyers right now, given our current experience, what should we do with this separation agreement? Do we need to file it with the court, or can it be signed and used in divorce proceedings, if things get that far. Second, if I decide to buy one of those online quit claim deed forms, where do I file that? With the court? Would my mom and my wife have to be present at a notary to get the thing official? And how does that affect the mortgage? Does my wife need to refinance the mortgage only in her name, or if she doesn't "need to" is it something i should push for.

I apologize for all the confusion, but this lawyer really screwed me I think, and now the guy is in Italy for a month. He'll be lucky if he even gets the $875 without a fight.

Thanks in advance.

[nextwife]

Duplicate post:

[url]http://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?p=687754#post687754[/url]

<< I posted this over in Real Estate, but I also needed an answer to the Separation Agreement questions too Thanks in advance. >>

Yes, as I stated in my post, this is a duplicate post, but it encompasses two topics. Thank you for answering the one about real estate. I put it here to ask specifically about the separation agreement portion and figured that it would be seen by a different group of people over here.

Also, I changed the topic name to include the separation agreement portion.

Thanks
Chris

Take it from me - do NOT practice law by yourself. Forget online forms. I am like you, trusting and probably somewhat naive, but there ARE good lawyers out there. Do not let your friendship decide the issues. You can be friends and decide to let the law "define" your future relationship. If you both agree, then there should be no problem solving this situation up front and legally. You will not regret it, because all the gaps will be filled. Right now, you are both wide open to the caprices of the other. Protect yourself.

Remember, once you have signed the separation agreement, you have signed a CONTRACT. There is little or NO hope of going back.