I assume the oral agreement you are referring to is one that was made in open court that was transcribed by a court reporter. If that is the case, you can certainly sue the lawyer if there is a variance between the agreement made in court and the divorce judgment. This is deemed to be a departure from good, accepted legal practice and procedure. The other essential aspect of legal malpractice besides the departure discussed above is that you incurred a monetary loss as a result of the departure. If you would have received more from the oral agreement than you will receive from the written judgment, the difference is your monetary loss. If the oral agreement was not memorialized in any way, it is my opinion that it would be difficult to prove what the specifics of the oral agreement consisted of to hold the attorney liable for any variance. Further, agreements which are in furtherance of dissolving a marriage must meet certain formalities to be binding.
Answered on Jan 21st, 2013 at 2:41 PM