Identity Theft?

[worthydaydream]

Hello,
I live in New York, unfortunately, I'm going through a divorce, we hired a divorce mediator/arbitrator.
After a second party (an actual lawyer) filed our paperwork with the court, the mediator indicated we needed an amendment, something about clarifying some of the legal verbiage necessitated this.
So, the mediator mailed us the amendment and a note saying "please return this and retain your copy". The problem is, along with the note and original wasn't a copy of our amendment, but rather, a different persons amendment. I can only assume she mailed my info to this other party... The amendment contained identifying info including my (and my soon to be Xwife's) name, address, and social security number.
What should I do? Destroy the other couples amendment? What if the other person or someone uses my info to steal my identity... other than being concerned, is there anything I should be doing? I feel like the mediator is borderline criminally negligent.

 

[Dave1952]

Let's do the obvious. Notify the mediator immediately by phone and ask for advice. Then see what is done.
What ifs are fun but not legally very interesting. What if the universe ends in half an hour from now? Then you won't need to worry about this identity issue.

 

[worthydaydream]

reply

I contacted the mediator, she said "just please tear up and throw away the other couples papers".

So I did that, but I guess for now, I just need to hope my info wasn't lost and if it was, hopefully the people aren't malicious.

 

[quincy]

I contacted the mediator, she said "just please tear up and throw away the other couples papers".

So I did that, but I guess for now, I just need to hope my info wasn't lost and if it was, hopefully the people aren't malicious.

More people are honorable than dishonorable. It is a good bet that anyone who received your information did the same as you did, and contacted the proper authority and then destroyed your identifying information.

You may want to keep a closer eye on your credit reports for awhile, though. Any time your identifying information may have been compromised, this is a smart thing to do.