Settlement agreement

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My husband filed for divorce March 2008, interrogitories have been done, I sent all mine my spouse did not.  Now my spouse has sent his settlement agreement but my attorney says she can not advise me without all the paperwork my spouse did not send.  She sent his attorney a letter requesting the info we never recieved anything back.  I don't want to go to court and spend thousands of dollars.  Can I use my spouses settlement agreement change the things around I need to with my settlement request and send it back to his attorney?  Is there anything I need to be aware of in doing this if I can use the same format?  I told my attorney I didn't want to ever go to court that I don't have the funds to drag this out.  It seems to me she didn't hear me, and Im not happy with the way she is has handled things just to make me pay extra.  She is representing me but I feel that she is only representing herself, typical from what I understand now about attorneys.   I also have a per marital annuity, and my father left me a gift of land when he passed in Dec. 2008 does my spouse have any rights to either of these things?  I should also state that my spouse was fired from his job in Nov. 2008 so Im not sure how this will affect my reply to his settlement agreement. I had decided on what to put in the settlement I was sending but now I don't know what to do?   My attorney said he was not entitled to my annuity or my gift of land but now she is saying he could be entitled.  I just want to finish this business of 2yrs and move on.  Thank You.

[Grace48]

I am nothing but a novice, but one thing I have learned is while the lawyer is out for the money, you can never be unrepresented. Your attorney needs your spouses answers so that she can get an idea about what is going on. That would not mean you have to go straight to court. You can always settle. I would get his answers and talk to your attorney about a counter offer, especialy with a trust and land. It is my understanding that once you are married those are marital.

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My Attorney did send a letter requesting all the information as she can not advise me on what to do until we have the papers we need.  We gave them 10 days to reply that was up two weeks ago (no reply).  She told me if we do not get the information we need she can get a court order.   So it was my understanding we would have to go to court to get the judge to court order the informatoin which in turn will cost me Attorney fees and Court fees.
Thank you for your response.

[TC]

The only way to get a court order to force your stbx to provide the information is to go to court.  And yes, it will cost you more money.

Divorce isn't cheap.  Not all attorneys are just out to milk their clients.....the key is to educate yourself on what is normal and what is not. 

TC

[Grace48]

Ahh, I see what you are saying. We did several motions to get info and the like. I didn't have to appear, my attorney handled it and it didn't cost much. Good luck.