Crooked lawyer

[lil' debbie]

I need to know how to go about suing my divorce lawyer. I knew nothing and he definately did not work in my best interest.
He worked it so that my non-contested divorce was contested and I really got the worse part of the deal. Looking back I now see what should have been done, but he did the exact opposite.

For example, when I first hired him, I told him I was living with another man, and had three minor children. What did he do? He got the Judge to order spousel support, not child support. Now who in their right mind wouldn't contest that? I received no child support until three months after I went to court for the final procedings and this was 8 months after I hired him.
HELP! Thank you!

 

[dorenephilpot]

I can't tell from the facts given if your attorney screwed up or not.

However, if you feel your lawyer was incompetent or unethical, you can file a complaint with your state's disciplinary commission (different states call the commission different things). You can call your state's bar association to get the number.

The commission will make a cursory investigation of the claim. If it finds some merit to the complaint, it will ask the attorney to respond.

After that, if it still finds validity to your claim, then it can punish the attorney up to and including disbarring him.

FYI, the commission will probably give your claim less weight if you just received a big bill from your attorney and haven't paid it and are trying to get out of paying it by filing a complaint -- or if you're merely complaining that you don't like the outcome, not that your attorney did anything wrong.

Hope this information helps.