My husband was divorced (Maryland) and he got a lawyer first (a woman) who advised him to move to another county and buy a house (establish residency) and then file for divorce first as that would make his county "in charge". His ex-wife wanted alimony for life and the county he moved to, bought our house in and filed from had never granted that.

I don't know what kind of divorce settlement you have but I'm sure if things "change" then you can request everyone go back to court and do an "update".

I would contact a lawyer down there, any lawyer (except the one you had :-) and learn if there's differences between counties and if the lawyer practices in a different county from your wife's and if that could be used to your advantage.

As "your" lawyer would be petitioning for everyone to come back and look at things again, it might help get it away from your wife's "area" (adjoining county might be fine, somewhere "close" where it wouldn't inconvenience her to have to travel there but would be out of her jurisdiction and might catch her lawyer out).

It's a "State" divorce but the State has different judges and traditions in different counties so see if a lawyer(s) can advise you on that e-mail and just get a general idea of if such a thing might work/be feasible before you go down there and hire someone.

I'd find some lawyer offices online and tell your situation now and your little story simply (what you want to do rather than complaining too much about what's been done to you at this preliminary time) and see what "free" e-mail responses you get.

There's bound to be a few hungry enough to want your business who will answer and you can then do a more deliberate interview through email and phone to choose 2-3 that feel "good" to you, that you feel you could work with, to then go down and interview in person.