Legal Question in Family Law in Oregon
Divorce Papers Already Signed
I had a high dollar divorce settlement that we agreed on through a mediator we hired, after years of fighting with our attorneys and getting nowhere. We decided to just do it without them and do it this way. I knew that I could get millions in our divorce but wanted to be friends in the end and didn't want him to have to sell his business, so I choose to take a very modest settlement and just get it over with. However, now that it's said and done, I realize that our papers were wrote up completely wrong, leaving out about $200,000 in my settlement. I know that he knows this and still will not be a decent person and pay what we agreed on. I confronted the mediator and she started crying and said she couldn't say any more to me without an attorney. (She had notes from our meetings showing these mistakes.) I never had an attorney look at the papers and his attorney drew them up for us to sign. I feel really stupid and foolish. He is also not complying with other things in the agreement as well. Am I just out of luck or is there anything I can do? I really need some help.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Divorce Papers Already Signed
Yes, you do need help. And yes, you most definately ought to feel really stupid and foolish. Not surprising, given your having signed legal papers drawn up by HIS attorney without even taking the time to have the papers at least reviewed by a lawyer of YOUR OWN choosing. (After all, HIS lawyer's obligation was to prepare legal papers for HIS benefit, not for your benefit. And HIS lawyer obviously did what HIS lawyer was hired and paid to do, and apparently did it very well.)
To be really blunt and crude about it, you allowed yourself to be screwed, and you did not even bother to use any protection. My my, how very, very sad. And now you seek a cure for the illness that has now resulted.
Well, it is now time for you to do what you could and should have done at the outset of this mess. And that is to consult with a lawyer of your own choosing.
The legal strategy would be as follows: Assuming the mediator's notes for the mediation session(s) show that the parties reached an agreement that is materially different than what showed up in the legal papers prepared by his lawyer, you may be able to challenge the validity and legality of the signed agreement, and seek RESCISSION of the agreement, on the basis that there was never a true "meeting of the minds" in that you understood that the written agreement that you signed was in accord with what was agreeed upon at mediation, and it now turns out that that is not the case.
This will be an uphill battle for you since you bear a major share of the responsibility in that you (1) signed legal documents prepared by your husband's lawyer without having had the papers first reviewed by a lawyer of your own choosing, and (2) you signed legal documents prepared by your husband's lawyer without (apparently) first making sure that the papers you were signed accurately memorialized the agreements terms and provsions that had been agreed up at mediation.
I wish you the best of luck and this one and hope things work out for the bests.
LAWRENCE D. GORIN
http://www.divorcesource.com/OR/pages/ldgorin.html
Law Offices of L.D. Gorin
521 S.W. Clay St., Suite 205
Portland, Oregon 97201
Telephone: 503.224.8884
Fax: 503.226.1321
E-mail: [email protected]
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