Court Of Record Forum
At a loss, i may become homeless. Help
i am new to this site and i am at a total loss for what to do.
I seperated from my husband early 2017, over the years he has got into so much debt, i dont even know what he owes. He also ran up debt in my name to the sum of 20k. We have 3 children aged 3, 5 and 7 and due to this i am only able to work part time. He has moved out and rents his own apartment. We have the house up for sale as it will end up in forclosuer but i will only recieve about 2k due to all the debt he has put on the mortgage, he refuses to ay child support, ( thinks he is helping if he pays the gas bill ) im behind on all my bills, food vouchers have stopped and i have to reapply which could take a month, cant afford anywhere to rent without him paying child support and have poor credit score and am scared i will end up homeless before it even gets to court.
Any help would be great as i am a total mess for what i can do. Very scared.
Keep in mind that as you fight to maintain, as close as you can, your marital standard of living, he's ALSO fighting to maintain his marital standard of living. Now that you have two households and the same income, there are some mathematical challenges there.
How old are your kids? You don't mention child support, so are they out of the house? Sounds like you live in CA, are you aware that it's the expectation of the state that you make good faith efforts to become self-supporting within a reasonable period of time?
Take a look at Family Code section 4320, it lists all of the factors a judge is required to consider in establishing judgment spousal support. The earning potential of the supported party is definitely a factor, with consideration of age, experience, education, etc.
The judge can't just use Disso-master as they do for temporary support, but my attorney has recommended using a figure based on Disso-master using something called a "B-key" or "B-bump" calculation as a starting point (I'm on the paying side). My understanding is that judgment spousal support is still primarily driven by difference in incomes and is typically somewhat less than what Disso-master spits out for temporary support.
Personally I don't think picking at his expense declaration and what you think he "should" be spending would be a useful exercise, but see what your attorney says.
As with most things in divorce, you're much better off if you can arrive at a negotiated solution without asking the court to decide.