Albany Business Daily

Is my attorney allowed to delay filing my divorce if I have not paid my attorneys fees in full?

Basically my question is this: Is it Legal in the state of Texas for an attorney to delay filing my divorce if I have not paid the attorneys fees in full? Divorce papers have been signed by both parties as of the 7th of October.

Public Comments

1. Yes. Filing a divorce costs money, and if you haven't paid it, theyr'e not going to pull it out of their pocket and hope you'll pay them back.
2. Yes, you pay him to do things like file the divorce for you, so if you haven't paid him, why would he do the work? Here is an easy way to explain it: You wouldn't go into work every day if your boss suddenly quit paying you, would you? No- you would only go in and do work when you were being paid for it.
3. perfectly legal. s/he is providing a service for a fee. If you haven't paid your bill then they don't have to file.
4. I'm in CA so I'm sure laws are different BUT maybe my story will help and you can make sure you don't get screwed the same way. This happened to my husband but it became my nightmare as well. He was married back in 2000, it lasted for less than a year, they we're both young and dumb. She wanted a divorce, they both hired attorneys, went through the whole deal and it was settled. He was ordered to pay her attorney fees which were about $1200 or so. He was young and at the time didn't want the divorce so he was totally over the whole situation and didn't take care of business like he should have. Fast forward to a few months ago when we went to apply for our marriage license and found out that his divorce to her was never finalized because he never paid her attorney in full. We both we're blown away when we found out. So he had to scramble and get it taken care of. Had to get his attorney involved again, her attorney involved again, it was a mess and it cost him even more money to have all the papers re-filed this time around. So even though they've been divorced for years...on paper and as far as the state is concerned they we're divorced just last month. It makes me sick just thinking about it. We got our marriage license just 2 weeks before our wedding and the whole experience was just awful! So it is possible for the attorney to delay the filing and/or not file at all until they get paid. So make sure everyone is paid and make sure you get a certified copy of your divorce judgement so you are 100% sure that it's a done deal. I wouldn't wish what we went through on my worst enemy. Hope it works out!
5. Some lawyers have no soul