My wife's attorney didn't file final judgement, Help :(

I live in Rhode Island. I'll give you the straight facts:

We went in front of the judge on December 18, 2002 for our non-contested divorce hearing. She had an attorney, I represented myself because it was uncontested. We were both happy with the final judgement.

I just learned today that her attorney (he doesn't do many divorce cases) never submitted the final judgement to the court a year later!!! We are still married!!! She doesn't know this yet, I called the court for a copy of the decree and was told that it doesn't exist.

I sold my investment property (which she agreed to waive any interest in) in April 2003 and made a substantial amount of money.

I called her attorney today and I'm waiting to hear back from him. I didn't tell her yet, and I intend not to tell her. I hope that he will just file the papers and not ask any questions.

My Questions are as follows:

Can she go after the profit that I made from the house?

Is there a specific amount of time her attorney has to file this paperwork?

Can the attorney be held liable?

What should I do???

Thank You. --Joe

your soon to be ex still owes her attorney money for working the case. Until the bill is paid in full, the judgment will not be filed.

you should call the attorney's office, find out how much is owing on the bill and either pay it yourself or contact your ex and convince her to pay it. you and your ex could also agree to split the bill.

what about my tax return?

Thank you for you input, I should have provided that information. Her attorney has already been paid in full (out of my pocket) and has just neglected to file the paperwork. I finally got a hold of him and he said he would check his paperwork and if he did not file the final judgement, that he would do so. He was a bit arrogant and cocky, and has been negligent in the past. So, I will have to followup to make sure that he does file the papers.

So, I guess there is no set time frame for him to file the papers?? They can do so whenever they want? I would think he is responsible for filing in a specific time frame. This is going to screw up my tax return if I have to file married...

Just One Question

Why did you wait so long to find out the status of your divorce?

Re: Just One Question

BlackWidow said:

Why did you wait so long to find out the status of your divorce?

Click to expand...

My response:

And what, pray tell, is the "legal" relevance of that question?

Writer, don't bother to respond to BlackWidow. She's an idiot from Canada who doesn't understand U.S. law. Besides, curiosity questions aren't any help to anyone.

IAAL

Yes true insults are allowed on here but not curiosity.


"Writer, don't bother to respond to BlackWidow. She's an idiot from Canada who doesn't understand U.S. law. Besides, curiosity questions aren't any help to anyone."

I AM ALWAYS LIABLE~ Please read my sig line... I added it just for you. Seems you judge people before you know them at all.