Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

pension

I divorced in 2001 in olympia , wa. If i agreed at the time to not take any of my ex husbands pension can that decision be reversed. We were married 26 years and had a paralegal do the divorce papers. At the time i had no idea what i was giving up . If this is possible please advise as to the steps i need to take.


Asked on 9/06/07, 12:44 pm

3 Answers from Attorneys

Peter Mogren Mogren, Glessner & Ahrens, P.S.

Re: pension

A property division is not subject to modification by the court, so that will not work. It is final. Your right to appeal the result expired after 30 days. The only possibility would be an Motion to Vacate, but after 1 year, the grounds are extremely limited. You would have to prove something like fraud, misrepresentation or other misconduct on his part. Your bad decision would not be sufficient to vacate the order. Property divisions are final.

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Answered on 9/06/07, 1:55 pm
Christopher Steuart IT Forensics, Inc.

Re: pension

Unless there is much more to the situation than what you have stated, you are not going to be able to get the property settlement vacated, see Mr. Mogren's answer for more on that. This may be the most serious downside of doing a divorce with a paralegal preparing the documents; they will generally not examine the details of the dissolution or counsel a client on the full range of considerations.

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Answered on 9/07/07, 7:35 pm
Elizabeth Powell ELizabeth Powell PS Inc

Re: pension

Would love to present your situation to the Bar, that is trying to set up a program to have non attorneys provide family law services for clients.

You should consider suing the paralegal for unauthorized practice of law. This is why you need counsel to help with dissolutions, because awful stuff like this happens and then it cannot be undone.

Elizabeth Powell

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Answered on 9/12/07, 1:31 am


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