Hello

My brother knew his girlfriend for 10 years, they have been living together for 4 years now and in this time frame (4 years) she has conceived twice, so two children are now in the picture. Oldest son is 3.5 and the other son is 18 months old. They all reside in NYC.

Well here goes the story:

When the older son (my nephew) was born, apparently the way the doctors delivered him was done incorrectly because now the child cannot raise his right arm, it's like he is disable and this is something we noticed as the child was growing, we realized that he could not utilized his right arm.

So my brother, the child's father seek legal help. He hired an attorney to look at the case and to make a long story short, the child was awarded 750K settlement, (the case did not make it to court) which we're told will grow to I believe 3 million by the time the child grows older, around retirement.

Well the problem is, my brother realized the 750k was not sufficient for his son. Supposed when this kid gets older he really cannot use his right arm, then how can he make a living for himself so my brother figured 750k was a small amount to take care of a person who could not work, he factored in the "time value of money" and he told the attorneys that he wanted more and voice his concern to them and as a result he did not want to sign off on any documentation to seal the deal.

Well the mother on the other hand became very "money hungry" and went behind my brothers back with the lawyers advising her and she made an executive decision and signed off on the papers. My brother had no idea what she had just done, she did not even get my brother's consent to do this, she just took it upon herself to sign off on the papers to seal the deal.

When my brother found out he became irate that she had done such a thing without his knowledge because they lived in a house as a family, he let it slide and he did not mention anything about this again.
According to my brother after she had signed off on the papers, well now she has full control over the use of the money, she became very powerful. She changed on him totally, 360 degrees and three weeks ago she asked my brother to give her and the kids a ride to her grandma and my brother did, he did it because he thought it was a routine visit. But then she came back with police officers and packed her stuff up and left.
The next day, my brother went to court and filed for custody and she did the same.
It has been very devastating for my brother. She left him with the kids for no reason, my brother did not do anything to her and we believe the only reason she left was because she believed she could take her son settlement and used it up and we believe she went behind my brothers back and signed off because she knew she was going to leave with the two kids and the 750K at some point in time.

One more thing, she is very much an unfit mother, she does not even know how to boil an egg or even cook rice, never give the children a shower or brush their teeth or even cooked a meal for them and I am not exaggerating here, this is the fact, so it clearly shows that even though she knew she could not take care of them she left because she wants the money.

My question:

What can my brother do?
Can he sue the lawyer who advise her to sign off without my brother's knowledge, can he sue her?
Does anyone know of a good child custody lawyer, one who does not charge a lot?

Any legal advise would be very much appreciated, and I mean any advise.

Thanks so much

Concerned sister and aunt.

Fist the mother or father should not have much access to the money, normally that will be put in a trust that no one could tough till the child is at least 18. If any money was available it would be for needed medical care.

Next of course a child without the use of one arm can do all sorts of work, while a disability not near a major one comapred to many others.

As for as who can sign off on the agreement if they were not married, who was the custodial parent by court order. If they had not formal court order, was he listed on the birth certificate,

And the money is the child's, not the mom or dad, do this money is not up to be sued for. He may ask to be sure the money has not been misused by hiring an attorney to represent his child.

I would say a retaner would start in the 3000 to 5000 area and could go higher if there was a lot of court trips.

He is not married to her therefore she beat him to the money. If his name is on the birth certificate as the father he may be able to sue her for the money, not the attorney who advised her.

Just because someone cannot cook a meal does not make them an unfit mother. If she constantly leaves the children alone, etc now that is unfit.

He needs to consult an attorney about this situation. But that will cost him money to pursue the mother. Face it, she beat him out of the money and skipped town so to speak. He needs to face the fact that she's got the money and the son probably won't be around to spend any of it once he gets older as momma already ran through it without him getting anything.

As far as the 750K settlement for an arm, he should consider this money manna from heaven. How many kids born with one arm period never collected a dime! Lots. I think the father had greed in mind... The child could very well support himself with one arm and do just fine. I don't understand the rationale that he needed MORE money! Sorry, this does not wash. Also why didn't anyone get married? Something is very very wrong with this picture honey!

Thanks for the reply.

There is no custodial parent here they have equal rights to their children and yes his name is listed on their birth certificates as their father.

And you are correct, the money is in a trust fund but my brother was scared that maybe she'll be able to work the system and get some money out of it before the child turns 18. Her family is like that, they'll do anyhting to get some money and my brother believes that is the reason why she jumped ship.

Finally we don't want to sue for money, we want to sue the lawyer who knew that my brother would not seal the deal with him and since he could not get throght to my brother he contact the mother without my brother's knowledge and the lawyer and the mother worked this out without my brother's knowledge.

Any other ideas?

If the lawyer advised her to sign off knowing that it was without your brother's consent and knowledge then your brother may have a case against the attorney. As for finding a child custody lawyer, your county's Lawyer Referral Service is a good place to start. I'd also advise your brother to try and get a court order to place the 750K in a trust account for your nephew with a court-appointed trustee in charge so as to prevent the mother (or anyone else) from having access to that money.

?? It does in my opinion. How fit can someone be if they can't even feed their own kids? They can't live off McDonald's all the time! Once in a while OK but not every day.

Twinkie, he did not want to marry her because she was not wife material and about greed, no the father was not greedy he was just looking out for his child's future and that is the fact!

And about the mother, she'll taek a shower and throw her underwaer on the floor while the kids walk and played with it, personal hygiene stunk as hell that the HR office at her job called hger into the office and told her to take showers and YOUR SAYING THAT SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? WHY THEY DIDN'T GET MARRY, NOW YOU KNOW WHY NO ONE GOT MARRIED.

She took the kids hoping that her sickly very elderly grandparents would take care of them, she does not have anyone to take care of them and in the past these same grandparents had complained about watching the kids once in awhile and my brother had stop taking the kids to her grandparents. Her mother is mentally challenged and she does not know who her father is, she has no sense of family, once she told my brother that the children did not need a father in their lives.
On the other hand my brother well our family grew up in tight family unit, mother and father still married now for over 40 years and we have a strong family background.
My brother support system far exceeds her support system

If an attorney were to be hired to start litigation against the attorney involved in this case, then what type of attorney can be hired. What type of case is this? Is this civil?

The only two types are criminal - which this is not - and civil. So, yes, this is civil. And as far as suing the Attorney - who is named as the child's custodian or parent and natural guardian on the original lawsuit - ? I would say probably the mother because she is the party who accepted the settlement. I do a lot of liability investigations and can only address NY State but the vast majority list ONE parent, not both, because no Attorney wants to get between warring parents in just this situation, particularly unmarried warring parents.

Didn't the Court appoint someone to review the settlement and make sure it was in the child's best interest?

This is not going to make you happy but I see no malpractice here - I don't know how you could ever prove that the Attorney "knew" the father wouldn't sign and so he got the mother to approve the settlement.

Your brother should sue mother for custody of his kids and if what you say about her is true, he should win hands down. Has anyone ever called the County on this woman about how they are living? Probably not. I find it hard to believe that a man would keep staying with a women, having two kids, not marrying her and is not marriage material. He must not have a good self esteem if this is all he could hook up with. He definitely should look into taking the kids away from her if she is that trashy as they would be better off with him. I do agree with Judy about the attorney malpractice biz as attorney malpractice is really very, very hard to prosecute and most attorneys will not sue other attorneys.

The settlement is the main thing here and the dad needs to make sure the money is not frittered away by momma. Contact the children's protective agency in your county pronto while you still know where this bimbo lives so they can take steps to take the children away from her or make her a better mother. Leaving kids with granpa and granma is awful to put it mildly. Have a judge step in and make momma account for every dime that is spent. Also, she did not get the entire 750K as the attorney got his lion's share as well. Nothing can be done about him now as his money is already in his bank account, but momma can be held accountable. Act quickly before she ups and disappears forever with the kids.

He knew my brother was not going to sign because my brother was fighting with him about the whole settlement issue. So when he could not get through to my brother he contacted the mother who agreed to sign without letting my brother knows.

Hello g:

The attorney represented the son, not your brother. In HIS view, the settlement was good, and he wanted a parent to sign off on it. The mother did. The lawyer did NOTHING wrong.

If the mom was soooo bad, how come he stayed? Oh, I understand why he did, but a judge will ask the same question. Really, telling a judge that the mother of his children is unfit, BUT he didn't DO anything about it for all those years until she split, makes your brother look bad - NOT her.

excon

Same questions again - which parent was the "parent and natural guardian" in the lawsuit? Was there a Court-appointed representative who reviewed the agreement on behalf of the child? We are both in NYS and I know a little bit about how this works. There is absolutely no benefit to the Attorney if your brother "signs off" for a lesser amount if the facts are what you say they are - the higher the settlement, the higher his fee (which is a percentage).

If both parents were the child's representatives (which is highly unusual) then the mother CANNOT settle without the father's signature, simple as that.

excon

He stayed with her because in our culture we don't leave our significant other, you try to work with them or you stay with them for the sake of the kids and if things are going really bad then you wait until the kids are older and then the parents split up and maybe that is what he was waiting for, for the kids to get older and then he would have left her. We care about the well being of our kids and we do not like to put them through bull

Hello again, g:

Apparently it IS something that you do in your culture, cause your brothers girlfriend DID it.

So, you think leaving your kids to be raised by an unfit mother ISN'T putting them through bull??

And, why are you mad at me?? I gave you GOOD advice...

excon

Would you please answer who was the child's parent and natural guardian in the lawsuit? (Doesn't your culture believe in marriage?)

I've been thinking about this and it seems rather interesting that the aunt who brags about just how wonderful the father's family "support system" is... why didn't she or his relatives take care of these boys instead of the mother's elderly parents? Let me guess, they don't live nearby. I still think there is something really wrong with this picture.

In cases where there is a large award of money, I ALWAYS find that a. that the award is NEVER large enough regardless of the amount, b. that everybody wants to control the money, and c. that the actual victim rarely sees any of the money. The fact that the attorney got a sizeable award without having to go to court and try and case before a jury I find most remarkable that he got such a huge award in the first place. They could have gone to court and a jury not award a dime. Your brother should count his blessings that the attorney even got a dime, let alone $750,000 for one arm.

Auntie, you never really stated that the father would like to be a part of the children's lives... just who does he sue? Like I said before, there is more here than you are letting on... I get the impression that if someone gave you a million dollars, you would complain that you didn't get two million dollars...

Judy has a very valid point here. Since a child cannot institute a lawsuit on their own, some person or persons had to be listed as the guardian on the legal paperwork. If the mother(as seems likely) was the only one listed, then the attorney was not culpable in ignoring your brother's wishes.

Another point is that the child was not "awarded" anything. An award is made by a court. What happened was the defendant offered a settlement. Also, I think you are misinformed about the potential of that settlement. If the child is only 4, then the $750K would grow to $3Mil (assuming prudent investment) by the time he reaches 18, not retirement. One can live comfortably (even in NYC) on the income on $3Mil (at least 6 figures). And the child is not totally disabled. He would still have some earning potential besides.

My only concern is whether the child will have medical and rehab expenses due to the disability that will need to be drawn from the settlement. That would cut into its future value. You also said the money was placed in trust. Who are the trustees? Your brother should be able to get regular statements about the trust activity so he can monitor it.

What your brother needs to do, though, is get custody. So before he worries further about the settlement, he needs to pursue custody. The settlement shouldn't even be bought up as an issue in the custody hearings.

Scott, you forgot to take out the attorney's fee from the 750K. It can be as high as 50% if it goes to trial. And yes technically it was not an award but a settlement. But in his case I think it was a lottery winner