Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Virginia

I have a divorce case that includes child support and custody for one child. I retained my lawyer prior to my child support hearing. The lawyer told me not to go to the hearing due to the fact that he was going to take the case from that court and get it to a different court, where the divorce, child support, and custody can all be addressed at one time. So I didn't got to the hearing for child support. Two weeks later I get a child support order in the mail for the amount of $1006.00 per month. I am not rich, I am in the military and don't make that much money. I tried to call my lawyer and after a week of calling I got in contact with them and they said that they will look into it. another two weeks when by with me calling before I got a response, and they said that the courthouse did not receive the fax that they sent and they will have to get another hearing. That was about a month ago and I have been calling every since with no response. I have now talked to another lawyer who said that it is now to late for me to get another hearing, and said I should have called her later. After she reviewed the child support order she said that child support should have been around $565.00 per month and not $1006.00 per month. Now I can barley live with the child support and bills and have to now consider bankruptcy. Are the actions or inaction of my previous lawyer grounds for a legal malpractice case.

Asked on 12/16/09, 5:00 am

Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

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0 attorneys agreed

As for attorney malpractice, not enough information to address that issue(in my opinion).

Nevertheless, if the lower court(presumabley J&DR;) made a mistake in figuring

your child support amount based upon the Virginia Child Support Guidelines,

you can still petition this court for another hearing to have it amended to the

correct amount.

Answered on 12/21/09, 8:34 am

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