Legal Question in Legal Malpractice in California

Law firm forgot to ask the court to retain jurdiction

Hello,

We settlement a civil lawsuit (monthly payment). The defendant first started paying but now stopped. There's a clause that says that I can accelerate the judgment if he stops paying for 2 months in a row but the law firm I used at the time did not ask the court to retain juridiction after we settled so now I don;t have a judgment and I cannont enforce it. They refuse to answer my calls and emails when I am asking them to finish the job and file the necessary paperwork to ask the court to retain jurdiction. What can I do now? This follows another major mistake they did. In the settlement agreement, they did not say that the civil agreement was for pain and suffering so the defendant tried for the last 8 months to confuse the court by claiming that the civil agreement was superseding the restitution order. He was trying to wipe out the restitution order completely. After battleing for 8 months and incurring numerous costs, the defendant finally admitted that he knew he needed to satisfy both but by the meantime, I incurred numerous additional costs. All this, because the lawyers were not specific in the agreement. And of course, they refused to help me when the issue arised so I had to take a lawyer for that.


Asked on 7/05/08, 8:23 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Robert L. Bennett Law offices of Robert L. Bennett

Re: Law firm forgot to ask the court to retain jurdiction

Your facts are a bit unclear.

Please resubmit and tell me what kind of civil action. What did defendant do to you? If the court order was for monthly payments, and the judgment is on record, why do you need the court to retain jurisdiction?

It sounds like you may have been given your answer by your law firm, and they are refusing any more calls or e-mails.

What restitution order?

Your last line indicates you retained a second lawyer??

Please resubmit with a clearer stating of the facts.

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Answered on 7/06/08, 4:05 am


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