This settlement was vacated in September 2008, due to both attorneys Rice and Shaw not adhering to Rule 2100 - Mandatory discovery / Financial Declaration forms; deviations between the oral agreement and agreement placed on record; and deviations between the written agreement and the court transcripts.
For some reason, Attorney Rice was adament that my financial advisor not attend this hearing.
When I arrived at the courthouse, I found attorneys Rice and Shaw in a conference room with my ex. Rice sat down with me in another room and told me that my ex was willing to make an immediate cash settlement offer of $50,000 cash. I wasn't prepared for this. My ex had never produced any of his financial records. I balked at the offer and told Rice that I wanted my financial advisor to review any offers.
Rice became impatient with me and told me it was a great offer. He reminded me that I would now be able to go home to Michigan. The more I hesitated, the more Rice reminded me of my chance to go home.
Knowing I wasn't going to budge at this out of the blue offer, Shaw kept walking into the conference room and calling out the time, "She only has x amount of minutes to make a decision. If she doesn't take the offer, Johnson won't hear her case today..."
Finally, both my ex and attorney Shaw came into the conference room and pressured me with promises of $50,000 cash immediately. Shaw and Rice promised me that I would receive $10,000 within 2 days and the remaining $40,000 in cash within two weeks. I buckled under the pressure and manipulation and agreed to the offer.
However, when we got into the courtroom, the $40,000 cash portion of the settlement was put on the record as a 401K distribution [taxes and penalities would eat a large portion of the settlement].
In the written order, Attorney Shaw deviated even further from both the oral agreement and the agreement placed on record, and claimed that I was not entitled to any portion of my ex's 401K.
How many other women were victimized by this type of manipulation and dishonesty by these attorneys?