What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? GA
I have been separated since April 2008 and have two children (4 and 2). When my ex and I were unable to reach an agreement to file the divorce uncontested, I filed and had him served in October. We attended mediation in November. We were both represented by attorneys during the mediation however for reasons I won't go into here, I have lost all confidence in my attorney and his advice. I am looking into reporting him to the Bar Association for some of the more egregious "errors" he's made. I have spoken to several other attorneys locally who agreed that I have a valid malpractice claim against him, however, each attorney that I have spoken with has said that even if I fire my current attorney, they would be hesitant or completely unwilling to take my case at this point.
During the mediation, I took my attorney's advice and agreed to some things that I really shouldn't have. Now he tells me that the mediation is binding and there is no way for me to change those things. From what I can tell from the mediation paperwork, this is true. But if my legal counsel was incompetent, do I have any recourse? (Note: There was no fraud or misrepresentation, just bad legal advice and I gave in because I wanted it over with)
Going into the mediation, we had working drafts of the settlement and Parenting Plan where we had agreed to everything except the amount of child support and the visitation schedule. During the mediation, those were the only two topics that we discussed. Now my Ex and his attorney have removed everything from the Parenting Plan and SA that was not explicitly specified in the mediation, even though we had already agreed to those issues. I am not at all comfortable with some of the changes. My attorney is advising that I should go ahead and sign the revised documents because "the Parenting Plan is just a piece of paper and doesn't really mean anything." He says that at this point, my only option is to go before a judge on the issues that were not included in the mediation and that will be expensive and make me look petty and vindictive. He says that I should sign just to get some kind of agreement in place and I can have it changed when we wind up back in court which will probably be very soon. On one level, that makes sense, but I'm beating myself up for giving in at the mediation and I don't want to make the same mistake twice.
I have been separated since April 2008 and have two children (4 and 2). When my ex and I were unable to reach an agreement to file the divorce uncontested, I filed and had him served in October. We attended mediation in November. We were both represented by attorneys during the mediation however for reasons I won't go into here, I have lost all confidence in my attorney and his advice. I am looking into reporting him to the Bar Association for some of the more egregious "errors" he's made. I have spoken to several other attorneys locally who agreed that I have a valid malpractice claim against him, however, each attorney that I have spoken with has said that even if I fire my current attorney, they would be hesitant or completely unwilling to take my case at this point.
During the mediation, I took my attorney's advice and agreed to some things that I really shouldn't have. Now he tells me that the mediation is binding and there is no way for me to change those things. From what I can tell from the mediation paperwork, this is true. But if my legal counsel was incompetent, do I have any recourse? (Note: There was no fraud or misrepresentation, just bad legal advice and I gave in because I wanted it over with)
Going into the mediation, we had working drafts of the settlement and Parenting Plan where we had agreed to everything except the amount of child support and the visitation schedule. During the mediation, those were the only two topics that we discussed. Now my Ex and his attorney have removed everything from the Parenting Plan and SA that was not explicitly specified in the mediation, even though we had already agreed to those issues. I am not at all comfortable with some of the changes. My attorney is advising that I should go ahead and sign the revised documents because "the Parenting Plan is just a piece of paper and doesn't really mean anything." He says that at this point, my only option is to go before a judge on the issues that were not included in the mediation and that will be expensive and make me look petty and vindictive. He says that I should sign just to get some kind of agreement in place and I can have it changed when we wind up back in court which will probably be very soon. On one level, that makes sense, but I'm beating myself up for giving in at the mediation and I don't want to make the same mistake twice.