Can my ex’s lawyer charge me for changes to an agreement that didn’t need to be made?

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Can my ex’s lawyer charge me for changes to an agreement that didn’t need to be made?

My agreement says that I pay to prepare the QDRO. I did. I only needed to use only 1 of 2 of my 401k accounts even though the agreement say I will use both, so had 1 QDRO prepared. Ex’s lawyer rewrote my QDRO and wrote another one for the account that I didn’t need to use. My lawyer gave permission to my ex’s lawyer to contact me directly which he didn’t do. Although the agreement says the money would be coming from two accounts, I had enough in the 1 acct to cover the entire amount. There was absolutely no need for him to take it upon yourself to rewrite both. Can he charge me?

Asked on April 21, 2011 under Family Law, Pennsylvania

Answers:

M.T.G., Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 12 years ago | Contributor

Did you pay your wife's attorney fees in the divorce action?  Do you think because the order stated that you were to prepare the order that since he re-prepared the order you have to pay his fee?  I guess that he could try and bill you for it.  And how it will pan out really depends on how your divorce decree is written and how it is interpreted.  So I really think that the best thing for you to do is to call YOUR lawyer and see: did the order as written REQUIRE that you use both accounts for the QDRO or was there leeway for you to use one account for the money?  If you are correct then I would contest a bill he attempts to send you.  Good luck.


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