| Is failing to advise sufficiently cause for malpractice?
What is the name of your state? CT
This is a divorce case. My sister asked her husband to leave the house prior to filing for divorce. They have two young children. He refused. My sister contacted a lawyer.
Over the course of two months, my sister informed her lawyer that the husband was disagreeable, would not leave the house, etc. My sister then decided to leave the house in the interests of the children. She repeatedly told her lawyer this would cause extreme financial hardship (she had to borrow several thousand dollars to find a new home and move). She moved out.
Subsequently, the husband asked for exclusive possession. In hallway discussions, my sister asked her lawyer what that meant and was told "It means he gets live alone in the house while you live in your apartment." My sister agreed, never understanding that it also meant she would be barred from the property without permission. In eight months, several contempt motions have been filed against her husband because he won't let her retrieve her or her children's belongings.
Today, we discovered that had my sister remained in the house until the divorce papers were served (a mere two weeks after she actually moved out), she could have filed a motion to have him removed.
My sister is working two jobs to support her children. Her husband is unemployed, addicted to prescription drugs, in therapy for anger management, a financial deadbeat and is about to be tried for insurance fraud. His parents live a couple of miles away with empty bedrooms in their home. We think is obvious he would have been ordered to leave the marital home during the divorce proceedings.
Her lawyer never suggested this. It's not an obscure part of the statute. Instead, my sister has incurred thousands of dollars in debt to support another home and her children as well as incurred over $18,000 in legal fees with this lawyer on issues solely arising from the fact that she left the home.
Is the fact that her lawyer failed to suggest this simple alternative--a common practice from what we now understand--grounds for malpractice? Instead of filing a motion and day in court for less than $1,000, this lack of information has cost my sister almost $40,000.What is the name of your state? | 
10-07-2007, 10:49 PM
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