Divorce with Decency

188 DIVorCe wItH DeCenCY

I called Marco at home. His new wife answered the phone. Of
course, I didn’t tell her that her husband was a bigamist and her
child was illegitimate. I just asked to talk to Marco.
Marco was shocked when he heard the news. “I’ll kill that
sonofabitch!” he said, referring to his ex-wife’s attorney. I told
him to save his bullets until we were absolutely sure that he was
still married to wife number one. After all, I had only checked
under the case number Marco had given me; perhaps there was
a new case, with a new number, which had been completed.
It was a long three weeks for Marco while we waited for a reply
from Texas. Finally, good news arrived. The ex-wife’s lawyer had
indeed let the first case slip by, but had evidently caught her mis-
take and re-filed and processed all the paperwork under a new
case number. We got a copy of the Texas decree, registered it, and
went about finishing up the case.

Lessons learned:

Make sure you’re really divorced, especially before you remarry.

Don’t just assume that your soon-to-be ex’s lawyer will take care of

everything. Get a certified copy of the divorce decree and keep it with

your other important papers. Make sure it has a court filing stamp

indicating when it was filed, a judge’s signature, and a seal, or other

markings from the clerk of the court attesting that it is a true copy

of the original. If you don’t get this from the lawyer handling the

divorce, you can get it yourself from the clerk of the court. And don’t

wait until you’re about to walk down the aisle with spouse number

two—get proof of your divorce at the time the court grants it.

— Contributed by attorney Thomas D. Farrell, former associate,

Coates & Frey

Pandora’s Box

John and Sue Schmidt were involved in a big-money divorce
with lots of assets. Sue ran a pawnshop business and regularly
dealt with large amounts of cash. Historically, she kept a safe
deposit box that often contained tens of thousands of dollars in
cash. John, of course, knew this.
As part of the divorce proceedings, the parties exchanged finan-

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