Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Florida

There was a lis pendens filed on my property in 2000 from an attorney that represented me after my husband filed for divorce. We reconciled, but eventually divorced in 2003. I was a stay home housewife for the 25+ years of marriage. My ex refused to give me retainer money when he filed again in 2002 again as the petitioner. Anyway, he is a successful vice president of a brokerage firm for 20+years. He is arrogant and believes the rules don't apply to him. He was able to beat the legal system by filing fraudulant financial aftadavits and delaying filing tax returns for 2002 until the settlement was signed in June 03. The tax return for that year was 200K, but nobody saw it but me as it was hidden in the settlement papers I signed. I eventually had to contact our accountant for a copy which was months later. Needless to say my attorney was not in the same leaque as my ex's & aligned with my ex to force the sale of my home while my children were still in middle and high school. The plan was to have the both attorneys deduct their fees from the equity at closing. This meant that my attorney would not have to petition for his fees. In essence I paid for the attorneys since they both deducted about 50K from the equity at closing. Since our joint brokerage and bank accounts were closed by my ex and unaccounted for he decided that the equity in the home would belong to me. Several months after the closing I was investigating the people who bought my home as I found out they lived next door to my husband and future new wife in her parents condo. That was when I discovered the Lis pendens from 2000 along with a release filed 6 months after the march 03 sale of my home in the official records. This release of the lis pendins is signed by my attorney (not the filing attorney from 00) & was only in my husbands name in the official records despite being filed with both our names in 2000. I questioned the court clerks if a home can be sold with an active lis pendins with no answers. I also questioned if my former attorney can file a release 6 months after the sale with no authorization from the attorney who filed the lis pendins in 2000. I also question why it was filed in the records by my attorney only in my husbands name. In general regarding any financial statements or documents I questioned was met with a condesending attitude. Oddly enough my husbands attorney did not have this attitude. Possibly because he was aware of the less than even playing field. I appolgize for the long statement, but thought it was important to describe the atmosphere.


Asked on 10/22/10, 4:44 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Shelly Schellenberg MI & FL private practice

You need a professional responsibility, legal malpractice attorney (who is also familiar with divorce law) to review your entire case. If your divorce attorney was not acting in your best interest, or somehow conspired with the other attorney to stick you with both attorney fees, and force you to sell the marital home to "insiders" of your husband's friends/family, then you may have a claim for money damages. The problem that you will face is the statute of limitations, because you have waited so long to discover or act on this situation. A tax attorney can tell you if there is any recourse for you as to the fraudulent tax returns filed by your ex, as the IRS is very unforgiving in this area.

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Answered on 10/29/10, 6:16 am


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