Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia
judgment/garnishee
I am going thru a very nasty divorce. I have a civil case pending for sexual assault and tortious interference,plus, the divorce. I had a former attorney that was causing me hardship legally and morally; therefore, I fired him and retained another attorney. The first attorney has filed judgement and garnishee against me for fees that don't exist. What should I do? I am under so much stress with the sexual assault case. My current attorney's are not giving me any advise as to how to handle this except to say file bankruptcy. I really don't want to do that. This previous attorney has also filed a lien against my settlement. He is out for blood. I have talked to the bar and they sent me forms to fill out. Hopefully, they will repremand him for this obsurd action that he is taking against me. The amount of money is $10,000.00. I had already paid him $8,000.00 and he was only my attorney for a year and 2 months.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: judgment/garnishee
Your opportunity to oppose your first attorney's claim(s) was when he first filed his complaint for judgment against you. However, once judgment has been entered against you, (unless it can somehow be set aside as invalid), your options are vastly narrowed to either pay it or bankruptcy as, apparently, your current counsel have advised.