I’m a stay-at-home mom and have been married to my husband for 25 years. I have raised our three children and the youngest is still only 12 years old. I’ve recently found out my husband was having an affair and want to divorce me for this other woman, I’m scared of losing everything. Since I do not work and he controlled all the money, I have absolutely no way to pay for an attorney. I have been told that if I go to divorce court without an attorney I’m in a lose everything, is this true? Is there a way for me to get a pro bono attorney? How do I pay for legal fees when I don’t have a job?
ANSWER:
There are some legal services that provide legal aid to indigent people, but this may not be the case if the household income that your husband brings then is higher than a certain threshold. We do in our law offices in situations such as this, is file a motion for legal fees to be paid by your spouse. If your primary function within the marriage was to take care of the home and raise children, obviously you will not have the money for an attorney, as you did not have the money to pay for any of the other bills. Because of this reason, with the use of an experienced divorce attorney you can have your husband forced to pay your legal fees also. The divorce court and family courts understand the situation that in certain marriages one person works for the money and the other person maintains the household and raises the children, and the courts take this into account when deciding the issue of legal fees to be paid by the other side. This is not something that is automatically granted, and most people that I’ve seen with attempted to do this on their own how always failed. You’re going to need someone who will fight for your rights right from day one and having your legal fees paid are one of your rights as you were never the person in the marriage that brought in the money, but you do have the right to legal representation. There’s also an additional added benefit of having your spouse pay your legal fees and a divorce, divorce is generally go smoother as one person is not going to want to pay two lawyers to fight over every little thing, and generally the divorces are over quicker and with less fighting.
Joseph F. Botelho, Esq.
BOTELHO LAW GROUP
Attorneys At Law
901 Eastern Ave.
Unit 2
Fall River, MA 02723
Office: 888-269-0688
Email: jbotelho@botelholawgroup.com
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