Qdro 24 years later

[Mt95legals]

Ex wife wide just filed for qdro from 1992 divorce. Divorce orders states 3/17 of respondents retirement. Attorney was suppose to follow up to court 30 days later. Attorney never followed up, now attorney is retired and of no help. Judge says she has no idea how court decided on 3/17 share. It was my I understanding the 3/17 fraction was a lump sum of benefit tobbe paid monthly as of 1992. I had defined benefit retirement plan with united Airlines that went bankrupt now under PBGC. The judge wants to take 3/17 of my entire monthly payment. I would appreciate answers how to handle thsee issues. I'm in pay status since December 2011 and the judge wants back payments. It wasn't my fault ex wife didn't keep up with qdro and get it filed before I remarried and retired. Help please. Thank you.

[Lou S.]

I guess the ex figures better late than never. I don't know what is stated in the order but is sounds like you may need your own attorney to represent you in this matter.

If you are a storage nut it would probably help your case if you have the original order and can clearly show that it is 3/17th of your accrued benefit from 1992 as well as a 1992 benefit statement showing what that accrued benefit is but I'm guessing these are nowhere to be found?

I will say I am not a lawyer and not an expert in QDROs perhaps some of the QDRO experts will have some more specific advice for you.

[QDROphile]

You are more likely to get helpful comments about technical aspects of QDROs on this board. For my part, issues about what is fair with respect to dividing assets or not are not matters that have answers that can be given from afar. Fight about that in local court.

As to the technical issues, the stream of retirement payments for your life can be divided prospectively any way the court approves, including initial payments that are increased for some time to make up for past payments that were not divided. Yes, you can argue that the delay that caused those payments to slip by without division is the former spouse's fault and it is unfair to go back and retrieve them, but the federal law about QDROs is indifferent to fairness. That is a matter of state domestic relations law and a competent local lawyer is your best bet but will not be able to perform magic.