Money from judgement paid to someone else

[cooper13]

Missouri
Was divorced in 2012 and in the decree it says "Respondent shall have a money judgement against the petitioner, in the amount of $2,000, which represents the eqalization of property in the marriage. The judge signed off on this divorce decree.

In 2014 the petitioner, made 2 payments of $1,000 and wrote the check to the respondents attorney and the respondent. The respondents attorney cashed the check but never gave or notified the respondent of the money received. The check was made out in the Attorneys name AND the respondents name, not and/or. Now the petitioner is asking for a satisfaction of release to be signed and is saying that only the attorney needs to sign it.

Is that legal? The respondent never received the money. The divorce decree said the judgement was between the petitioner and respondent, not the petitioner, respondent and respondent's attorney.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Sounds to me the attorney needs to be reported to the BAR.

Did the respondent owe the attorney anything at the time the two payments were made?

 

[Zigner]

Please have the involved party long on to ask his/her own questions. Alternatively, said involved party can seek his/her own legal advice from an attorney.
Thank you.

As an aside, the attorney is the one who needs to be paying his/her client what was paid to him/her.

 

[quincy]

Missouri
Was divorced in 2012 and in the decree it says "Respondent shall have a money judgement against the petitioner, in the amount of $2,000, which represents the eqalization of property in the marriage. The judge signed off on this divorce decree.

In 2014 the petitioner, made 2 payments of $1,000 and wrote the check to the respondents attorney and the respondent. The respondents attorney cashed the check but never gave or notified the respondent of the money received. The check was made out in the Attorneys name AND the respondents name, not and/or. Now the petitioner is asking for a satisfaction of release to be signed and is saying that only the attorney needs to sign it.

Is that legal? The respondent never received the money. The divorce decree said the judgement was between the petitioner and respondent, not the petitioner, respondent and respondent's attorney.

Is it legal? It is not necessarily illegal.

The documents and facts would need to be reviewed.

 

[HRZ]

One would need to read the docuements ...and while the attorney might have a valid claim if OP had an unpaid bill, sending the check to the wrong person might not satisfy the requirements of the order and the OP might be smart to advise EX in writing they received no payments on the judgement and intend to seek contempt against EX for failure to pay as ordered ...let EX go get the money back?

 

[quincy]

An attorney might be owed money but the attorney cannot just appropriate funds that belong to the client.

There are a lot of questions that need to be answered but, unless cooper is one of the involved parties, cooper is not the proper person to answer them.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

I never meant to imply that if the attorney was owed money it was OK if he held took the funds. The question was asked as and afterthought.

 

[quincy]

I never meant to imply that if the attorney was owed money it was OK if he held took the funds. The question was asked as and afterthought.

I was addressing HRZ's comment ("... while the attorney might have a valid claim if OP had an unpaid bill ..."), not your question to cooper.