Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
Where are the papers now?
My friend thought he was divorced in 2001. We tired to obtain a copy of the divorce decree through the county district clerk's office. They did not see a record of it. The lawyer he used has since be disbarred. My friend, nor the ex-wife, still have copies of the papers. They do not know the lawyers name. We think the lawyer may never have filed the papers. How can we go about finding the papers? Should he just pay to get divorced again? They never had to appear in court, could this be a sign the papers where not real? If we obtain the lawyers name, where could we go to find these ''so called'' divorce papers. Is there any recourse we can take aganist the lawyer if indeed he did not provide the service he was paid for?
Thank you!
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Where are the papers now?
I would advise taking whatever "papers" might be found to an attorney in that county so that they can do a search to see if a case was ever even filed. If not, the process (divorce) will have to start from scratch. The State Bar of Texas deals with attorney misconduct, but since that lawyer has already been disbarred, there may not be much the Bar can do.