To start with you final question, it depends on the attorney. Some attorneys will allow you to wait to pay for their services until after you have collected on a judgment, other require an upfront payment. What I would recommend to you would be contacting some form of legal aid in your area, as these attorneys often are able to help lower income, and or disabled persons free of charge. As to the Settlement Agreement, you can certainly still have that enforced, though I would need to see the specific language in the agreement to know for sure. You may also be able to collect retroactive payments as well. You need to act quickly, however, because justice aids the vigilant, not those who sleep on their rights. Obviously, you have very good reasons for your delay, and a court would likely take that into consideration. In law there is something called the statute of limitations, which is basically an amount of time that is set by statute during which you must bring your claim. For enforcement of court judgments, the limitations period is 6-10 years. As the 10 year end is approaching, you should act quickly.
Answered on Jun 12th, 2014 at 8:05 AM