Attorey Signing Settlement I didn't know for two years!

[critterperson]

What is the name of your state? Illinois,

I have already sent my complaint to the ARDC but I was looking to see what you guys thought. Some of you may remember about March of this year I logged on and was asking about a "blank" agreed order that my attorney had given to the judge for child support (by blank I mean no signatures except the judge). Most people I talked to felt it was odd that a judge would sign something like that with no signatures...Fast forward

On August 1st 2006 (mind you I have a new attorney that also had only the "blank" No signature order) while preparing for our trial on August 9th 2006, I pulled up this order and it is not only has signatures of the other party, but a different attorney in the firm that I hired signed on the line meant for my signature??? I was fuming, as I had never talked or met this person and NO ONE at that firm has my power of attorney...I immediately went to my former attorney that had NEVER told me there was a ("settlement" is what the judge called it at our trial) as she had written me over 15+ letters indicating that we are working on correcting the order entered by the judge. Her comment was "I have NEVER seen that document"
My question: How serious of a problem is it for an attorney when they sign a "settlement" for another attorney's client when they have never met the client or spoken to them EVER? And no one at the firm has a power of attorney or any other type of consent?
Also, how much trouble can my attorney be in for covering it up for two years by sending letters indicating that the judge put in a "temp order" and that it didn't need to be signed by me as it was only temporary, and it was going to be fixed just as soon as I paid her for discovery, motions to compel, letters to the other attorney and on and on?

[Dandy Don]

Did this attorney sign HIS name or YOUR name on the settlement form?

Are you saying you never received the settlement money from this?

Do you know how much the settlement was and would you have agreed to that amount?

[critterperson]

Originally Posted by Dandy Don

Did this attorney sign HIS name or YOUR name on the settlement form? He signed his name and then FOR after it..

Are you saying you never received the settlement money from this? I have recieved half the child support amount that I would have recieved had this not been "settled" by this attorney...Basically he settled for my ex paying only 1/2 of what he would have been required by statute to pay.

Do you know how much the settlement was and would you have agreed to that amount?

No. I called them immediately after they gave me a copy of the blank one (I was not aware that a signed one even exhisted until 2 years later) and told them that this only counted half his income...This is when my attorney told me that it was a temp order entered by a the judge and this happens all of the time in child support cases and not to worry, and that once they determined his true income it would be fixed and he would have to pay an arrearage based on what he should have been paying... She sent me letter after letter stating the same thing only to find out later that it was a "settlement"

This was a settlement of a child support amount... This attorney signed his own name (he was another attorney in the firm that I have never met or talked to), but on the trial record it appears that the only person at court was the attorney for my ex...
The child support amount put in place was set at an amount less than half of my ex's net income...

To add insult to injury, I have been told for the last two years that my attorney (not the one who signed) was attempting to ascertain his "true income" so we could fix the child support temp order entered by the judge, and that my ex would have to pay the difference in the form of an arrearage. When apparently the amount had been settled in 2004, without my knowledge, consent or power of attorney by another attorney in the firm and they had been concealing this for two years...

So basically I "settled" with half the amount of support for our child without my knowledge due to this attorney_s signature, and to add insult to injury my attorney continued to charge me to determine his "true income" by doing discoveries and motion to compels (that I was charged for but she dropped without completing them)

Also note I had been told in numerous letters (over 15) that the _settlement_ was a temp order put in place by the judge, and the copy I received did not have ANY signatures on it at all except for the judges_