I’ll try to sum this up briefly: my wife and I decided to get separated last summer. We finally found a way (financially) for her to get an apartment, so our physical separation started this past November. I had a lawyer draw up an agreement and gave it to her on February 15th. I ask her every couple weeks what is the status of her getting back to me and she says that she needs to meet with a lawyer, but has been too busy to do so. Is there anything I can do to enforce her to act? (i.e. actually go see the lawyer or whatever) Can I send her an amended agreement with some sort of deadline? Any advice is welcome.
As far as I know there is no way to compel someone to sign a separation agreeement, much less go to a lawyer. There is no legal separation in NC, so she never has to sign a sep agreement if she chooses not too. Unfortunate, because they can save you both a fair amount of money in the long run. As far as meeting with her lawyer goes, it would be a conflict of interest for him to meet with you alone, I think, and I wouldn’t recommend meeting them both without your own attorney.
You cannot force your wife to act on the separation agreement, however you can file suit for equitable distribution of property in order to have the courts distribute the marital estate. Your ex will be required to respond to the lawsuit within 30 days of receiving service of the same. More often than not folks are willing to come to the table to negotiate once a deadline is placed on them. It may end up that your ex is willing to sign the Agreement and you can then dismiss the suit.