Legal Question in Family Law in Florida

I filed a case for child support back in 2006 that went to final trial in October of 2009. From the date if the case being opened I was under a temporary support order. My attorney never asked for any arrears to be granted during the many hearings over the course of the 3 years, and did not have any arrears calculated for final trial. He never asked for any arrears at all. I had asked him for years why he has not asked for those arrears. He replied with the same comment each time, "we'll go back and do a modification after we have all the correct income numbers." Me being naive to the laws and trusting that my attorney knew what he was doing, I believed I had no reason to worry. After reviewing all the court papers I have, I've noticed several errors that my attorney did. Not feeling comfortable about his representation of my case in the right way, I contacted other attorneys to get a second opinion. I was told that I would not win my case if I filed for a post judgement modification of the support and ask for the arrears that were never asked for. My attorney made me believe this would not be an issue based on the information. Now I'm not sure who to believe. Do I have a case or not? If I can prove errors in numbers and request the corrected support on the accurate numbers, why would I not be granted the error amount? I feel as if I was not only mis-represented by my attorney, but also took a loss by the judges order in final trial. What can I do at this point? Who do I believe? Can this be corrected or am I wasting my time?

Thank you!!


Asked on 1/18/11, 6:57 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Brent Rose The Orsini & Rose Law Firm

Your lawyer should have asked for arrears, if in fact they were owed, in the initial paperwork that was filed on your behalf. If that wasn't done, then your paperwork should have been amended to request arrears. It's almost impossible, after your final hearing has been completed, to go back and ask for arrears. If there was an error made in the calculations at your trial, you may still have the opportunity to have the errors corrected, but there is a time limit on that, so you should seek the advice of another attorney as quickly as possible. You should speak to that new lawyer about the arrears issue as well, but I'm afraid you may have lost the arrears forever.

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Answered on 1/24/11, 12:37 pm


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