7 years ago my fiancé filed for a divorce from his VERY abusive and crazy wife. She got a lawyer, he filed signed the papers, gave them to her to give to her lawyer, and that was the end. The lawyer never filed the papers, and refuses to do anything about it since it was so long ago. His wife ever since has been threatening him to give her 1/2 his tax return or any other $ he comes into cause "they are still lmarried." it gets worse, they have a 10 year old, he pays her $600 per month. He has his daughter at minimum of 4 days per week, and is responcible for 100% of her cost of living! Now we are trying to get married, what will happen when he files again? Can the court just divorce them w/o conflict. Can she still screw us over? I should mention her lawyer was her friend! Is there any loop hole that since it has been so long, we don't need her to sign anything?

You don't have to have her sign anything. Maybe things didn't happen the way I read your post. But if your fiancé hires a lawyer (and you didn't say he did), and the divorce gets bogged down and never completed, it is the lawyer's responsibility to push the case through the court. There is always the potential for conflict in court because it is an 'adversarial' system of securing legal rights. If the parents are communicating and working together for the best interest of the child, the amount of conflict can be minimized.

I'd be checking that previous wife isn't entitled to half ownership of anything he may have currently... such as retirement accounts, car, home...

Sounds like you need to hire a lawyer that represents you, not her... I'd go after shared parenting, and custodial parent to have the support for her lowered since she is with you over half the time, and also you have the history of the child's time spent with you to support this arrangement.

Have you been operating on temporary court orders all of this time, or how was the visitation and financial arrangements arrived at... There was no final divorce agreement apparently, so it seems like this was put in place "temporarily"

Also, is there a legal or recognized date of separation done through the courts?

Sounds like the first lawyer is only responsible to the other woman.