My Lawyer added up the settlement wrong

[hess]

I discovered that my lawyer added up my settlement wrong and I was paying my ex $12,000 more than I needed too. I told my lawyer, she apologized but it created a big problem.

My ex would not co-operate. His lawyer suggested we split the difference. I pay $6,000 more than I needed to.

I have never heard of such nonsense!! In a math exam 2+2 = 4. Otherwise, it's wrong.

My lawyer said based on her experience, it's a crap shoot if a Judge will recognize the error in math and reduce the settlement accordingly.

Has anyone experienced this? I want my $12,000 back!

[standing on the sidelines]

well i have no knowledge in this type of thing but did you sign anything saying that the figures were correct?? I would still try and see what you can do to fight it. It is a lot of money.

[sufferer]

Your lawyer made a dumb mistake and she should be responsible for her actions.Just my opinion.

[independentgal]

As long as you are sure it is a straight mathematical addition mistake, and there can be no other interpretation, then bring a motion to get it fixed.

If you bring a motion, the other party has up to the motion date to agree to settle the relief you are requesting in your motion. If the other party does not agree to pay back the money in an acceptable manner then you should go to the motion and you should win the motion including your costs. The other side would have to serve and file a responding affidavit to your claims in your supporting affidavit to your motion. There really is no defense to the math error so you should win what you were asking for with costs.

I say bring the motion, but make it for a motion day two or three weeks ahead of time so that you give the other side time to agree and find a way to pay it back.

[FreeNow]

Originally Posted by sufferer

Your lawyer made a dumb mistake and she should be responsible for her actions.Just my opinion.

Do you have some useful advice?
FN

[dadtotheend]

The lawyer made a mistake, but isn't it also incumbent on the client to be reviewing the lawyer's work and hopefully catching it?

A lot of folks, and I'm not saying you're one of them hess, regard the lawyer as a (very expensive) magic fairy that swoops into your life and will solve all your problems while they sit back and watch Monday Night Football. It doesn't work that way.

The problem is that there is usually not a direct link b/w the math presented in the financial disclosures and the end result that gets settled. These numbers are negotiated, often in a informal conference setting and the link b/w the math in the disclosure and the end result commonly disappears by the time an order on consent is agreed upon. And because there is no formal record of those negotations, the trail is washed away as soon a you leave court.

So it would seem that unless a very direct link exists b/w the math and the end result, recourse to either the lawyer or the court will be very difficult to effect.

[hess]

Thanks. That makes sense to me inspite of what the mediating lawyers are telling me. I am going to fight it then! There is no disputing the math is wrong. Both lawyers agreed. But my ex wants a certain amount of money and he is threatening with charging me interest if I don 't comply to the math error.
Apparently, the minute the ex moves out, the "interest meter" kicks in meaning that who ever has to pay out the money, can be charged interest from the date of separation!!

I had never heard of anything so ludicrous and challenged my Ex's lawyer saying that's crazy. How does anyone know the settlement on the date of separation.

[dadtotheend]

I'm just kidding. It's actually a coin flip.

[hess]

What :-( a Coin flip? That is what my lawyer's experience has been in her cases where this has happened. She said, it could go either way. It's a crap shoot.

Gawd it makes me disrepect the legal system.

Do you have any experience with providing for post secondary education. I want my ex to contribute to the kids RESP. And, guarantee an x$ toward tuition. It is what we had intended to do for them when we were married. Since he left with the woman he picked up from the Ashley Madison Website, he's a changed man. It's like a am dealing with a stranger and we were married for 26 years.

Part of me wants to run away from it all. But, I am not independently weathly and have "shared" custody.

[FreeNow]

Originally Posted by dadtotheend

The lawyer made a mistake, but isn't it also incumbent on the client to be reviewing the lawyer's work and hopefully catching it?

I strongly disagree with this statement. If we are paying lawyers phenomenally high hourly rates we should be able to expect competence.
Fire your lawyer!
Your second step should be to contact the Law Society of Upper Canada and lodge a complaint. This lawyer should be financially responsible for their mistakes.
If that doesn't work (they protect each other), take the lawyer to court. The case is fact driven so you can represent yourself. The lawyer will pay to make this go away.

FN