I sure hope my divorce is final....

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I talked to my ex today, and he happened to mention that he had just gotten a bill from the county, telling him that he owed $35 for our divorce. Some filing fee or other that cost $70 was underpaid by $35. The lawyer was supposed to take care of all that, but apparently she made a mistake. I asked him if he wanted me to talk to the lawyer, and he said no, it would be easier to just pay it.

Problem is, we were divorced in 1995.

So why has it taken over ten years for the county to figure out that he owed them money? Was our divorce final? (according to the public records website, we are divorced, and I’m going with that!) If for some reason they were to determine that the divorce (actually, a dissolution) isn’t final because all the bills weren’t paid, how would that affect his subsequent marriage and divorce? I’m just baffled that this is the first time in ten years anyone has mentioned this to either of us. We both were easily located in the first 5 years after the divorce. What kind of accounting check are they doing that turns this up?

The lawyer we used (it was so amicable we only used the one lawyer for the two of us) was a member of my church, and she has recently acted as the attorney for another church member who is suing our church. So I’m not really on speaking terms with her anymore. Calling her and asking her what she did wrong is probably not an option.

Shouldn’t there be a statute of limitations on how long they can come after you for money you owe if they never told you you owed the money? I know it’s only $35, but still…

God, I hope I’m not still married to that man…

2

IANAL (yet), but if the searchable public record says you’re divorced, then it’s probably a valid divorce. Public records are presumed to “put the world on notice” of a certain fact, be it ownership of property, a secured loan, a divorce, or what have you; I suspect that there’s maybe a debt in your name (or his, or both) on record in some clerk’s office, but the divorce itself is probably not affected.

Then again, I have no experience whatsoever with divorce law, so if I were you I’d call someone at the county Recorder of Deeds’s office (or wherever the dissolution decree is filed) and ask them for a definitive answer.

3

They may be going through a bunch of old records and seeing where they can collect fees they never bothered to bill before; a friend of mine was divorced in the Cleveland area years ago, and she recently got a bill for some similar amount.

4

Each of you should have gotten a Divorce Decree when it was offical.