Legal Question in Family Law in Michigan

Serious error in divorce decree

Hi,

my new spouse and I discovered an error in his divorce decree from last year. The decree did not contain a time frame for the ex-spouse to refinance or sell the marital home in order to satisfy what she owes my husband on the equity of the home. His name is still on the mortgage loan and the equity line loan. There is no specific time stated, although it was discussed on numerous occasions and emailed in proposed settlement statements. As it stands, she never has to sell or refinance in order to pay his share of the equity of the home. We have tried to resolve this with her and her attorney and ours for almost 8 months now, but they have now come back with numerous unreasonable demands before they will agree to a time frame. All we have asked is that she agree to refinance or sell in order to pay his share when his minor child graduates or turns 18 in 2013. We feel that is very reasonable. The secretary of our attorney agreed that this was a total oversight on thier part. What is our recourse now? Would it do any good to contact the judge? I can't believe any judge would agree that no time frame for this issue is reasonable.

Thanks so much for any help you can give.


Asked on 8/07/07, 9:26 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Audra Arndt Audra A. Arndt & Associates, PLLC

Re: Serious error in divorce decree

If your previous attorney is unwilling to help resolve this matter, you need to hire a new attorney to file a motion to modify the divorce judgment to correct this mistake. I would think if you put pressure on your previous attorney, he would help you for free, as this is an oversight on his part, and could border on malpractice. I am sure he would fix it for free if he thought you might file a grievance against him.

And yes, your timeframe is more than reasonable.

Good luck.

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Answered on 8/07/07, 1:53 pm


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