Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois

I hired an Illinois attorney to handle my maintenance review. 30 year marriage, first attorney was inept and was only able to get a 36 month mainteance but it could be reviewed. Tricky part. The review could only be before the last payment was made which was Feb 1st. However, the 36 months is not up until March 1st. My attorney did not interpret the Feb 1st deadline and missed it. We filed Feb 19th, do I have any recourse?


Asked on 3/21/13, 6:51 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

Missing legal deadlines is one of the most dreaded fears of most attorneys. You may have a claim against the attorney's malpractice insurance policy and/or lawsuit. And you may have the right to file a complaint with the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission. As to the malpractice claim or a malpractice lawsuit, however, you'd have to be able to prove, with reasonable certainty, by how much the maintenance would have been reduced had the filing been on time, since that would be the measure of your damages. As to the ARDC complaint, that would only result in discipline against the attorney, but not compensation to you.

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Answered on 3/26/13, 1:03 pm


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