Mediation agreement

Don’t know about the rest of this but I will tell you that is lawyer will not talk to you as your lawyer will not talk to him. That would not be ethical. You are not his client - your ex is.

“His attorney will not answer my attorneys e-mails or phone calls to find out what is going on”

I don’t think she meant that SHE was trying to talk to his lawyer. Sounds like his lawyer won’t reply to HER lawyer. [;)]

If your stbx will not sign the agreement then the matter will have to go before a judge to be heard. If the attorney is not responding it could be that there are other cases that he has that are more pressing, there is nothing to update your attorney on, or maybe it simply means that he is waiting to file complaint to take it to court…
The only thing I can tell you is that his attorney will contact your attorney when there is a change. I do not think there is a time frame or deadline for this type of thing. If there can be no agreement reached it could go on for years with one or the other of you changing something…This is all before it’s ever forced to go to court…
I’m not sure what to tell you about forcing the issue. Have you spoken with your ex? Maybe he needs to be the one to prod his attorney into a response of some sort…

If you have a signed parenting agreement then he will have to abide by that. He can not changed a signed document. Period. The only thing he could try to do is to get the document overturned or found invalid. Unlikely in my opinion.

You cannot force a separation agreement. It is an agreement. If neither party is willing to sign the agreement you will never get one and the court will decide. It sounds like you went through mediation and agreed and then your STBX got cold feet on what was agreed to. That being said you did not have an agreement only and understanding.

Non communication is a common thing. There are various reasons for that. Some of the simplest reasons are that attorney’s are busy. Another reason is that the client is not paying the attorney. So the attorney will only work on the case when they have to. Sometimes when one side feels they are in a position of strength and feel that they can get everything they want in court, why talk? Sometimes when one side is in a position of weakness there is no communication. They have nothing to bargain with.

All attorney’s will respond to court dates. So if you STBX wants to settle this out of court then they will talk. Otherwise you will have to go to court. It will be settled there. Eventually. The time frame for that could be, as stepmother said, measured in years. I have heard of cases going 2 year before ED was finally decided.

I was hoping there was a different answer to my question, thank you for your responses. Wishful thinking that because the agreement we made at mediation was signed and notarized we had pretty much finished the process. Thanks again for your help.

Did you sign a basic settlement agreement and are not trying t get a final separation agreement signed?

Helena M. Nevicosi
Attorney with Rosen Law Firm

4101 Lake Boone Trail, Suite 500
Raleigh, North Carolina 27607
919.787.6668 main phone
919.787.6361 main fax

Charlotte Office
301 McCullough Drive
Suite 510
Charlotte, NC 28262
Main Phone: (704)307.4600
Main Fax: (704) 9343.0044

Durham & Chapel Hill Office
1829 East Franklin Street
Building 600
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
(919) 321.0780

The response posted above is based upon the limited factual information made available and is not intended as a full and complete response to the question. The only reliable manner to obtain complete and adequate legal advice is to consult with an attorney, fully explain your situation, and allow the attorney sufficient opportunity to research the applicable law and facts required to render an accurate opinion. The basic information provided above is intended as a public service only, a full discussion with an attorney should be undertaken before taking any action. The information posted on this forum is available for public viewing and is not intended to create an attorney client relationship with any individual. These answers are provided for informational purposes only, a person should consult with their own individual legal counsel before taking any action that could affect their legal rights or obligations.

We have a signed (and notarized by the mediator)memorandum of settlement agreement that is to be made into our separation agreement. He is wanting to change some things we agreed on but primarily it is wording on when I can exercise the stock options that
we divided (he wants to control it). It was my understanding that if the wording could not be agreed on it would go back to the mediator – they took 2 months to answer the first draft, now it’s been 5 weeks on the next draft. This is how the whole process has gone from the beginning, we would act and then wait months for their response. What is a reasonable time to wait before taking the next step? Like everyone else I would just like to get it over and move on. Thanks for your response.

It certainly is frustrating when your life hangs in the balance and the other attorney seems to be delaying their responses without good reason. Sometimes the attorney is the source of the delay and sometimes it is your spouse. There are different ways to proceed depending on the facts of each case, on of them could be to file a lawsuit to enforce the mediated settlement agreement. Your attorney is involved in the day to day negotiations and may have a better idea on what to do. If you are not comfortable with their advice, you might want to consider taking your agreement to another attorney for a second opinion.

P.S. Please feel free to bring up this or any other topic on our live call-in show every Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. EST. Visit radio.rosen.com/live for details

Helena M. Nevicosi
Attorney with Rosen Law Firm

4101 Lake Boone Trail, Suite 500
Raleigh, North Carolina 27607
919.787.6668 main phone
919.787.6361 main fax

Charlotte Office
301 McCullough Drive
Suite 510
Charlotte, NC 28262
Main Phone: (704)307.4600
Main Fax: (704) 9343.0044

Durham & Chapel Hill Office
1829 East Franklin Street
Building 600
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
(919) 321.0780

The response posted above is based upon the limited factual information made available and is not intended as a full and complete response to the question. The only reliable manner to obtain complete and adequate legal advice is to consult with an attorney, fully explain your situation, and allow the attorney sufficient opportunity to research the applicable law and facts required to render an accurate opinion. The basic information provided above is intended as a public service only, a full discussion with an attorney should be undertaken before taking any action. The information posted on this forum is available for public viewing and is not intended to create an attorney client relationship with any individual. These answers are provided for informational purposes only, a person should consult with their own individual legal counsel before taking any action that could affect their legal rights or obligations.

We mediated and reached a settlement agreement in December; however STBX keeps trying to change what we signed and agreed on and will not agree to the wording on certain items; he wants to control what he agreed to divide. His attorney will not answer my attorneys e-mails or phone calls to find out what is going on. Is there a time frame that this avoidance can continue? What would be the next step in getting a separation agreement finalized?