Legal Question in Family Law in New Jersey

New judge, Bad attny, lying exhusband

After five years of seperation my then husband was court ordered to pay child support. He denied paternity of a child know by us both not to be a mutual child. This saved him from being orderd to pay two children instead of three. Less than two weeks after the order he filed ...finally for divorce. Everything he was asking for in judgement I had no problem with...uncontested. I did not attend by advice of PA counsel. He used this forum to lie to the Judge and have custody turned over to him and child support stopped. The judge ''embarassed by his decision'' stood by it in my motion to vacate.I retained counsel After this motion to vacate has carried on. This attny just withdrew from case ..Supposedly due to health problems,however still continues to solicite clients. I have documents that prove his lies in court, and a false police report that I abandoned the children. My main two questions are;

Does title 28 come into effect here? Being that I had custody (court ordered ) and lived in PA for more than 6 mons?Is my former attny liable to me for withdrawing from case . In our retainer contract, It is not specified about illness only the retainer I paid and that I would be billed hourly of which I have not recieved on as yet.


Asked on 5/18/03, 3:32 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bruce Matez Gerstein Grayson, LLP

Re: New judge, Bad attny, lying exhusband

Your question is unclear. If you lived in Pennsylvania with the children for more than 6 months, you may have an argument that NJ did not have jurisdiction over the custody issue. However, the facts are unclear. In order to provide any type of legitimate legal advice, I would need to review the transcripts of the hearings and any documents presented to the Court. With regard to the issue of your attorney, there is a Fee Arbitration procedure in New Jersey. Depending upon where your attorney's office is located there is a secretary of the Fee Arbitration Committee in each district whom you may contact to obtain the forms for Fee Arbitration. If you would like to further discuss these issues, please contact my secretary, Debbie, at 856-795-6700 to schedule a consultation.

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Answered on 5/19/03, 12:51 pm


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