Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

Divorce & child custody
Recently I have hired an attorney to file a petition of divorce for me and at that time I thought that it would be an uncontested divorce. It has turned out that it is not and my soon to be ex will not agree with me on custody and visitation of our 3 yr old child. The lawyer that I hired wanted me to serve the papers on him for uncontested divorce but we could not agree and he bacame hostile and I had to file a protective order against him on my own without legal help because she would not do anything without $1500 additional after I had already paid her $1000 for the Petition for Divorce which is not any good now because it looks like we will be going to court. On april 6th we went to court on the protective order and he served Petition for Divorce on me and I cannot get any legal representation because everyone keeps telling me that I have a lawyer but I cannot afford to give her any more money so where do I stand and do I need to fire her with written notice? Can I go to court without a lawyer?

Asked on 4/08/09, 11:34 am

Fran Brochstein Attorney & Mediator

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Re: Divorce & child custody

I highly recommend that you have an attorney since custody of a small child in involved.

The Petition for Divorce was NOT a waste of time or money. It sounds like he has filed a Counter-Petition for Divorce.

If he filed in another county, then you need to have his suit dismissed since yours was filed first.

You can fire your attorney or you can find a new one and ask that the attorney of record be replaced.

I practice law in Harris County but if you need some clarification, I'd meet with you for an hour for $100.

Answered on 4/08/09, 4:09 pm

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