Ex wants to reopen our divorce

I'm new at this, so I hope my post makes some sense. My ex wants to take me back to court and to get more retirement benefits from me. Is it usual or unusual for judges to reopen divorce cases? The ex now wants a survivor annuity from my Federal Government retirement benefits. We attended financial mediation, and his attorney never discussed a survivor annuity. We signed the MSA, not awarding a survivor annuity, and were divorced about 9 months ago. It seems to me that what's final should be final?????????? Thanks so much!

"My ex wants to take me back to court"

What does that mean?

Have you been served with a copy of a Petition to Reopen the Divorce, or something like it, that has been filed with the court?

PS.

Here's something I found on the internet by googling wisconsin divorce law reopen divorce

"The court does not have the authority to change a property division order after the date of the final divorce unless a party files a Motion to Reopen and the court grants that motion. A Motion to Reopen must be filed with a "reasonable" period of time but no later than one year from the date of the final divorce. The court has the discretion to determine what is a reasonable period of time. Also, the court will only reopen a judgment for very limited reasons such as mistake, fraud, inexcusable neglect, new information or other equitable grounds."

If you did get served with such a motion you can certainly file an objection to the motion and the court will hear arguments from both of you before making any kind of decision.

"Is it usual or unusual for judges to reopen divorce cases?"

It would be uncommon to reopen a case for property division issues, but it depends on the relevant facts and the applicable state law (and you didn't identify your state in your post as requested in the posting instructions).

Sorry, I'm from Wisconsin. My attorney feels that chances are fairly good that the case won't be reopened. Apparently, there are some strict limitations regarding reopening a divorce case. However, she also says I shouldn't get my hopes up too high. Thank you for your advice.

Thank you for finding this! We did not have mistake or fraud. There's no new information. If inexcusable neglect exists, it's on the part of my ex-husband and his attorney, who never took the time to fully research my retirement benefits package until after the Marital Settlement Agreement and Judgment of Divorce. Thank you very much for this information!

Hi again, My ex and his attorney are threatening to reopen the case. My attorney will notify me asap if and when they serve the petition to reopen. I think they are threatening in hopes that I'll cave in on the issue of the survivor annuity.

if "the date of the divorce" is the date the hearing was held where the divorce was granted or the date the order was signed by the judge?
I mean as far as when the one year period starts.

Depends on local rules of court. I'm guessing that the date the decree is signed by the judge would start the one year period. But many courts go by the date of the clerk's filing stamp which could be a day or two later.

"My ex and his attorney are threatening to reopen the case."

Threatening?

Tell them both where to go with the threats and don't be polite about it.

Good idea! I hate playing this waiting game, waiting to see if I'm served or not. Thank you!

Wisconsin has a web site that you can look at the status of your case. If you find your case you can check whenever you want to see if anything happened. If they filed papers it would be noted. Not much of a heads up but you might be interested. wcca.wicourts.gov

Thanks. Actually, I usually check there every day! And my attorney said she'd call right away if she hears anything.