Legal Question in Family Law in Washington
Attempts to Pay Debt Owed After Divorce. Am I still Required to Pay??!
As a result of my divorce I was ordered by the court to pay part of her legal fees that totaled in the area of $4000.00. I started paying her by sending personal checks, but later sent my lawyer a cetified check for her for about $3,800. She was suppose to sign the settlement document and take the check. She never picked it up. After about a month my lawyer mailed it to hers. She never cashed the check. She said that her bank would not cash the check because it was made out to 3 people (me, my wife and ex-wife). Me and my wife had even signed it. I told her to have her bank call the credit union that issued the check to verify that it was good. Her response was no. I told her to just deposit it and the money would be hers in a couple weeks. Same answer but worse. She said that she needed a copy of my license. When I went to see my daughter in Washington an agreement was made with my lawyer and hers that we would all go to her bank on a Friday, in order to verify who I was, so she could cash the check. She told her lawyer she would but never told us where the bank was. She never cashed the check.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Attempts to Pay Debt Owed After Divorce. Am I still Required to Pay??!
If you have given your ex-wife a certified check for the money you are required to pay, you have done all that you need to do. If you wrote her another check, you would actually be paying her twice. I am not clear about the reason for the check being made out to you, your current wife, and your ex-wife. Perhaps your ex-wife was annoyed to find your new wife's name on the check. I would advise you to avoid doing things which are unnecessary which may annoy your ex-wife and perpetuate the friction which lead to the divorce. Reminding a first wife about the second wife is usually a source of friction.
Re: Attempts to Pay Debt Owed After Divorce. Am I still Required to Pay??!
If you sent a check, and it was a good check, and you did everything in your power to make sure the ex got paid, you certainly cannot be held in contempt of court. If you had the ability to comply with the court's order, and you did everything in your power to comply with the court's order, then you have not violated the court's order.
You may want to consider (1) advising her that you are canceling the check, (2) depositing the check in your attorney's trust account, (3) and that she can get the money from your attorney any time she wants.
You could also deposit the money in the registry of the court and advise her that its there, assuming that you have canceled the other check.
As the other attorney stated, I'm not sure I understand why all of these people's names were on the check.
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