Agony Aunt: Duped by a legal rat

Dear Janine,

I was married to a lawyer and left him, as he was abusive to our children and me. In the early years of our marriage, my husband asked me to sign mortgage documents. I went to the appointment with a lawyer he was friends with and signed without reading them. It was very stupid but I trusted my husband at the time.

To cut a long story short, my divorce settlement was $50,000 for 20 years of marriage. All this happened 11 years ago. At the time, I fought it for several years and used six different lawyers. My husband is clever and a very wealthy lawyer, so he was one step ahead of them all.

I ended up calling it quits.

I've been seriously considering doing something about this because I've always struggled and will never be able to buy my own house. Do you think I should contact another lawyer and have my case reviewed?

The payout I got was a joke.

ANSWER:

The extent of your husband's skulduggery is quite incredible.

Setting you up with a legal friend to get "independent" advice on a document is treading the line.

Disguising a matrimonial property contract as a mortgage document is cheap trickery. It would never get beyond a silly trick, if the independent lawyer had insisted on verbally explaining it to you.

There is no need to feel stupid.

While the law does not make much allowance for it, your mistake was one of trusting your heart - hardly a personality flaw. Until the end of time, people will do a "Sally Ridge" and sign things they do not completely understand. At a human level we all recognise how these things happen and it is quite reassuring to see high-profile people, with more access to advice and resources, making human errors.

Back in the early 1980s when you were married, a $50,000 settlement might have seemed like a reasonable outcome for a couple wanting to contract out of the equal sharing of assets. But 20 years later with children in tow and no sun-set clause (expiry date), it was a financial catastrophe for you.

IT DOES APPEAR UNFAIR

But I am not a lawyer. I have not seen the agreement and know nothing about the history to it. I am just passing comment on a moral level. It worries me that half a dozen legal roosters have tried and failed to help you. There must be some complexity behind your case, to explain why it never ended up with the courts deciding if it was unjust or not. Perhaps assets were protected using trust arrangements?

Were you scared off by legal costs?

We are now 11 years on from your divorce but you have not moved on from the outcome. It is bugging you and maybe you need one last swing at it to satisfy your mental state.

DON'T WASTE TIME WITH MINOR PLAYERS

If you decide to, all I can suggest is you take a decent-sized swing with a big bat this time. Don't muck around with small legal firms.

Your husband obviously has the skills of Dynamo the magician.

You will need someone like Deborah "Houdini" Hollings to unravel it (now Deborah Chambers). I have named one of New Zealand's leading QCs, known for her mastery of complex relationship property cases, just to make a point.

Any big firm will have high quality people who could review this.

A couple of suggestions are Bell Gully or Russell McVeagh.

KEEP CONTROL OF COSTS

Gather together a file about your situation - that is, the written advice from other lawyers, copies of your financial records at the time of the divorce and the matrimonial property agreement you inadvertently signed. Make a bullet-point summary of dates and the events so a new lawyer can get a quick picture of the situation. You need a one-off meeting or phone conversation where you ask for a high-level review and candid feedback about your chances of challenging things at such a late stage. On top of that, your lawyer will need to be candid about costs. Do you still have the $50,000 original settlement to use?

LOOK TO THE FUTURE

I have no idea what the outcome will be. What I am more interested in is what happens to you financially once you have taken one last swing at the past. Whether you walk away again, or end up with a better outcome, I want to know why you are someone who has always struggled financially. I can guess the answer; you had to raise your children.

But what are you now doing, to change yourself into a successful person who does not struggle?

Your husband messed up your past but he has absolutely no bearing on how you develop your skills going forward.

The only way to move on with some sanity is to wipe his wealth from your head. You cannot eliminate the fact he is the father of your children but you can ignore his success and go on to create your own.

Your financial success may only ever be a fraction of his but, rest assured, there are not that many happy lawyers out there - their money cannot be used to purchase their own time back.

Janine Starks is a financial commentator with expertise in banking, personal finance and funds management. Opinions in this column represent her personal views. They are general in nature and are not a recommendation, opinion or guidance to any individuals in relation to acquiring or disposing of a financial product. Readers should not rely on these opinions and should always seek specific independent financial advice appropriate to their own individual circumstances.