MIA Attorney

[petersnessa]

What is the name of your state?California
This is a long story, but I"m gonna try to make it short.
I am trying to collect child support that is 10 yrs past due. The DA cannot enforce it because there is no order. My attorney never followed up with the other parties. She sort of just abandoned the case. I can open a new one and begin collecting support immediately, but then I will lose out on over $25,000 in arrears that I am owed for the last 10 years. She will not return any of my phone calls. I even sent a (certified) letter and told her exactly what I expected to happen. I want her to finish this issue so I can collect support. I belive that as my attorney it was her responsibility to see this through. Instead she just abandoned the case. Now I worry that it's been too long. I've waited so long to collect because he (father) hasn't held a job and has been in & out of jail. He's finally working now. Shouldn't she be responsible for this? The fact that she is very obviously avoiding my calls, makes me feel like she knows she's in the wrong and is hoping I'll just go away. I even told her I would involve my (other) attorney and if necessaery, file a complaint with the Ca. State Bar.
Does anyone know to what extent she is responsible for this? Is this considered malpractice?
Also note, she carried no malpractice insurance at the time. I'm not sure if that matters or not.

 

[stephenk]

how long ago did you hire the attorney? what was she specifically hired to do? Why have you waited 10 years to do something about child support? Didn't you suspect something was wrong about 9-1/2 years ago when you weren't provided a copy of the support order?

 

[petersnessa]

I hired this attorney in February of 1994. We signed the settlement agreement on April 21, 1994. According to her records, she sent the finished paperwork to the dad's attorney to be signed in June. I hired her to represent me because he decided to sue me for custody and visitation. She was supposed to see me through trial and do whatever else was necessary. Towards the end (after trial), I lost my job and became past due in my payments ($183) and she filed a small claims suit against me, which she dropped immediately because I paid her. I don't know if that's why she abandoned my case...
As I said in my original post, I waited 10 years to collect child support because he had NO job and was in and out of jail. You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip. There was nothing to collect. That's also why I wasn't overly concerned about not receiving a copy of the order. Time went on and I guess just knowing that there was no money to collect made me forget about it... She also assured me that the settlement agreement would be sufficient to collect child support.
Does this mean I'm "SOL"?

 

[Dandy Don]

Why cant you get your new attorney to complete this for you? Is it absolutely necessary that you still need the first attorney? She is not likely to work on your behalf now that you have threatened her with a complaint with the state bar association.

 

[petersnessa]

I could just have my new attorney handle this. He has to do something called CCP 664.6, which would make the settlement agreement an order (which is what she should have done). It will cost me a few thousand dollars, because it involves a motion and a whole other court date and lots of paperwork. I really can't afford this. It was all caused by her mistake, so now I feel like she should fix it.
So, no it isn't absolutely necessary for her to finish the case, I just feel like it's her responsibility, as it was her carelessness that got us to this point.

 

[VeronicaGia]

I could just have my new attorney handle this. He has to do something called CCP 664.6, which would make the settlement agreement an order (which is what she should have done). It will cost me a few thousand dollars, because it involves a motion and a whole other court date and lots of paperwork. I really can't afford this. It was all caused by her mistake, so now I feel like she should fix it.
So, no it isn't absolutely necessary for her to finish the case, I just feel like it's her responsibility, as it was her carelessness that got us to this point.

So you won't accept responsibility for waiting 10 years to try and get this court ordered?

I think the DA already gave you your answer. There was no order to begin with, so how can you miss out on something that was never court ordered? The time you let lapse for getting the order in and enforcing it is probably long since gone and trying to enforce documents that were never part of a court order 10 years later isn't likely to happen (though no one here can tell you what a judge will do). Stop blaming your attorney and keep in mind you didn't do anything about it either.

 

[VeronicaGia]

CA Civil Code of Procedure (CCP) 664.6:

664.6. If parties to pending litigation stipulate, in a writing
signed by the parties outside the presence of the court or orally
before the court, for settlement of the case, or part thereof, the
court, upon motion, may enter judgment pursuant to the terms of the
settlement. If requested by the parties, the court may retain
jurisdiction over the parties to enforce the settlement until
performance in full of the terms of the settlement.

 

[petersnessa]

Thank you VeronicaGia for filling me in on CCP 664.6. I am very aware of what this is and how it works. And I didn't wait 10 years to try to make this a court order. I had no idea that there wasn't a court order. I assumed that my attorney had done her job and that I had nothing to worry about. I waited until the father had a job to try to collect child support. And why would I waste my time trying to collect child support from someone with no job who is in jail?
I posted on this website for advice. I can sit here all day and stress over what I could've done and how I should've handled things differently, but I really don't think it'll do any good. All I am trying to do now is move forward from here. I am blaming my attorney for not doing her job. I also accept responsibility for not being more on top of things. But advice like yours is definitely not very helpful either.