Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

attorney representation less than desirable

I moved out of our marital home in December 2006. I signed a separation agreement with my spouse in June 07. My question is in regards to my attorney representation. I live in a fairly small city in virginia. My wife retained a lawyer with a known friendship with the main presiding judge over family court. I retained a lawyer in the same town but was very unhappy with his knowledge of the law. When I posed questions to him based on military law, alimony length and such he said he would have to ask one of his associates. After he gave me answers. I the find out that his information wasn't correct but using his information I entered into a separation agreement with my spouse based on his info. I want to change some of the provisions in the agreement. My spouse does not. We have had our agreement notorized and it was stamped as received by the court clerk. Does this mean it has already went thru the court and they have approved it? We have not bee to court or any hearings. Can our agreement be challenged by either party or is it set in stone? Is it possible to retain an attorney to fight her on the issues which I want to change. One of the provisions was that my disability pay was to be added back in for division purposes of alimony


Asked on 6/29/08, 2:39 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: attorney representation less than desirable

Once the separation and property settlement agreement (PSA) has been voluntarily signed by the parties before a notary public, it's considered an enforceable contract(whether or not it also is filed with the court).

And, as with a challenge to the validity of any contract, in order to prove that this one is somehow invalid, the challlenging party would have to prove that he or she was improperly subjected to undue influence, coercion, duress, or fraud, or that the contract was unacceptably biased toward one party(contract of adhesion)or other such legal improprieties that were sufficiently present to invalidate it.

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Answered on 6/29/08, 4:34 pm


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