5 long Years and a big surprise today

[Peaceful in NJ]

I'm new here, so I 'll try to be brief...My wife filed for divorce in Oct 1999. I hired a lawyer, went to mediation, spent a good deal of money. Then everything came to a halt in Summer of 2002.
My lawyer calls me about 2 months ago to ask how I would like to proceed because he had not heard from the court re this 4+yr old case. He says I could 1) do nothing or 2) he would check with the court as to why this case has not been called.
Today, I decided to call the court clerk myself and was shocked to learn that the original suit was dismissed in June of 2000!
I don't know what to do at this point, except to get another attorney. Has anyone experieinced something like this?
Both our children are grown, we have no assets as everything has been sold. The only thing left is our individual savings, 401ks, etc. I don't even know where she lives. Are all of my accumulated assest vunerable at this point? Sorry for the vent, but I am desparate for some advice.

[joni]

YEP

you continue to be vunerable until a) you get a court ordered legal separation or b) you get divorced.

fyi...people rarely get court ordered legal separations...moving out and filing for divorce is not a court ordered legal separation.

your attorney dropped the ball big time on this one.  as your attorney and the court officer registered on your case, he would have been notified of the dismissal.

[msme]

Bottom line, you are a married man. I know someone who had a similar situation but there were kids involved. They went to court, the judgement was made & everything was moving along. She signed the final decree & it was sent to his lawyer who was supposed to have him sign it & the send it to the judge for the court to register it.

She turned to CS enforcement to try to get him to pay CS after 3 years of only sporadic payment. They told her that the copy of the decree she had wouldn't do. They had to have a certified copy & they would get it.

Imagine her surprise when they told her that she wasn't divorced. It seems that he never signed the original nor did he pay his attorney so it was never registered with the court & was dismissed after 6 months for lack of action.

She immediately filed & it moved through the courts pretty quickly. I would suggest you file immediately. A good attorney should be able to move it pretty quickly.

Good luck & God bless.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression!