Legal Question in Family Law in Florida

I retained legal counsel, Walter C. Thomas, Jr, PA, to attain unsupervised visitation of my 3 minor children. However, the final agreement he and I signed, has an inclusion (exhibit) wherein I unwittingly agreed to supervised visitation. And now my attorney, who I thought was generous when he charged an up front flat fee, when I told him this significantly reduced the time I have with my children, to less than it was when I retained his servives, is telling me to find another attorney. I gave him $5K and now I am lucky to see my kids once a month. He let me sign without advising me that by doing so, I was waiving my right, as biological father, to my children. Now I have no money for a lawyer, and my wife is the only one happy. I talk to my kids on the phone. They want to see me, but they can't because of this agreement. What can I do?


Asked on 6/19/10, 7:38 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

Lucreita Becude Lucreita D. Becude, P.A.

You can file on your own a Petition for modification of supervised visitation, get a hearing date, serve the ex with it and appear with your facts in hand. Sorry your were duped - I can only speculate by what you have said. If this statement is true then you need to file a complaint with the Florida Bar.

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Answered on 6/19/10, 1:56 pm
Brent Rose The Orsini & Rose Law Firm

In a later post on this forum, you quoted the agreement you signed. It read: "[Your] mother must be present for the entire visit." I'm not sure why you are blaming your lawyer. It looks pretty clear to me that your mother must supervise all your visits with the children. I agree that, if your lawyer told you that, somehow, your agreement doesn't mean what it says, you would be confused, but even still, why on earth would you sign such a thing? If your goal was to avoid supervised visitation, why would you sign an agreement that clearly calls for supervised visitation? How bad could your lawyer be? Did he tell you not to read plain English? NO wonder he won't represent you now. You're blaming him for something that isn't his fault and expecting him to get you out of something you got yourself into. Unfortunately, these agreements are strong contracts. Once they're signed, you're stuck with them. I assume the only reason you signed it was because, otherwise, you may not have seen your kids at all.

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Answered on 6/21/10, 10:17 am


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