I separated in August 2009 and the divorce was granted November 2010. We have a signed ED as of June 2010 however, my ex is not living up to his part of the agreement and I feel as though my attorney is not being aggressive enough with ex and his party. For example, we had agreed that the house (he’s in it still) be refinanced by September 2010 or sold - neither situation has come about. After looking at all assets and debts, my ex owed me around $25k. The mediator and my lawyer advised that I break this amount into manageable payments over 3 yr (2010-2012) so that my ex would be able to pay it. So far I have recieved none of the payments for 2010 and again nothing has been done by my attorney. We did not ask that interest be paid or lawyer fees be paid should we have to go back to court (this was not brought up my mediator or my attorney).
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Can I ask the court to revisit the terms of the ED since my ex seems not to be adhearing to anything we said we would?
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Is this lack of support (for want of better wording) grounds for changing my lawyer and having the case reheard?
No ED cannot be re-visited, but you may file a breach of contract action (if you have a separation agreement) or a motion for contempt (if there is a court order).
You may change lawyers whenever you wish, but the case will not be re-heard.
Thanks for the info. We have a court order. So if I go back to court to file for contempt of the order, can I not ask that my ex pays all the money now as opposed to the breakdown of payments? I’m thinking that I shouldn’t have to trust that my ex fulfills the rest of the order since he hasn’t done so up to now. I’m not able to pay to fight for this now far less for any further breeches to the court order later on. Can I ask that my ex pays for legal fees at least for all this strife?? When I started this, I had no idea my ex would not live up to his end of the agreement. I feel as though I’m being punished by entering into an agreement with good faith.
Also as part of our ED order we had siad that we would go to mediation to trash out actual property items - not surprising that this too has not been done as yet. Should I even bother with mediation at this point or take it to the courts when I go to discuss the breech of other parts of the ED?
You may ask for an advance on all payments, I cannot say what the judge will do however. You may also ask for attorney’s fees incurred for having to file a motion for contempt.
Go ahead and ask your ex to schedule mediation, if he will not comply, include that in your motion for contempt.