Attorney's Fees

My husband had a long-term affair and has moved out. Due to the adultry will he be responsible for the cost of the divorce including my attorney’s fees even if I am the one who files for the divorce?

You are entitled to seek attorneys fees for the costs involved in seeking alimony, postseparation support, child custody and child support if you are the dependant spouse. Adultery in itself does not give rise to the automatic award of attorney’s fees. The court is indifferent as to who is the plaintiff and who is the defendant with respect to an award of attorney’s fees.

So what does the Judge use as a determining factor as to whom should get attorney fees?

A dependant spouse can seek an award of attorney’s fees for support and custody issues. The dependence is the factor which opens the door to attorney’s fees.

Then I could use the threat of him paying attorney fees to get a better settlement? What would I have to lose?

If I am a recipent of Child Support for my daughter and the Custodial Parent. Would this be the dependance that you are referring to?
I was never married to the man. This would be the deciding factor of attorney fees, based on child custody and support.
I was awarded sole physical and legal custody, child support and retroactive child support.

I exhausted ALL of my retirement account to fund the litigation. He isn’t paying what the judge ordered, and still has a attorney. Would this be considered bath faith? If he is unable to provide full ordered support and yet still accumulates bills with a attorney, that he obviously could not afford to pay.?

Considering that the NCP had never seen the child until she was six years old. Paternity and everything had to be done.

There are a lot of inconsistencies in his story.
He and his new wife admit that they knew I lived in another county and new the address and in fact admitted to me after court that they drove past my house several times to see if they could see her.

Yet they filed in another county at my parents address, where my then grandmother (passed away shortly after) had been living with my parents and suffered from dementia. I actually did not get the papers or (find) the papers until 10 days before the court date. And I had to find counsel.

What deciding factors would be used, is it dependancy, that my daugher and I are depending on his additional income to live or dependancy that the retirement account could have been used to fund Taylor’s college tuition and/or help myself be able to live after raising the child on my own for many years and filing getting myself out of debt and then him filing papers putting me right back into the same situation that I had been in previously without his help.

If you need more information, I can provide it. I am just not sure what you would need to answer my question?

If you earn less than your ex and are without funds to sustain yourself through the pendency of the action you may ask for attorney’s fees. It is in the sole discretion of the trial judge as to whether you will get them and in what amount.
The facts you list most certainly paint your ex in a light of acting in bad faith, which bolsters your claim if he is hiding funds and truly has the ability to pay.

My situation is this I pay 78% and he pays 32%. He filed in 06, (she was born in 02)then it was transferred to the correct jurisdiction. I was a single mom at this time barely making ends meet. Paying for full daycare and full medical, full everything and still having to pay a lawyer to defend my case against him.

He is self employed and the amount of money that he makes, is solely based on him going out and looking for a job and finding his own work. At any given moment he could make more than me or less than me. He has the discretion that a lot of people do not have. He works for cash and can get paid under the table and not report a portion of his income.

I paid 100 % of a preemie healthcare in 02 (135,000.00 just the hospital bill for her only), nursery, daycare, home care nurse, medical expenses and almost lost my house during the process. Between 12/02 thru 10/08. I provided everything that my child needed. In 06-08 My attorney fees were going thru the roof. In 07, I started getting help from a man that I love and married, he placed a large portion of these lawyer debts on his credit cards trying to help.

(before court order)
Another issue that seems to be a sticking point with them is they claim that I did not allow NCP to be their for the child. This is something that I keep hearing over and over again. My claim is that my only obligation is to tell him about the child and what he does from that point on is his responsibility. He would call once a year on christmas and ask to see her, When I asked him if he was going to support her, financially, physcially, mentally,…etc…He would state"she is not mine". Then I would say, “If she isn’t yours, why would you want to see her? or whats the point of seeing her if she isn’t yours?” His defense to this was that my father, in which did not live with me, “told him that she was not his”. This makes no sence, He would believe my dad, that has no idea whom I had been with, instead of believing me. Obviously, their is NO trust between any of us.

This went on for years. I was not about to let someone walk in and out of her life whenever they wanted and emotionally hurt her like that. But my point being that he could have filed at any time, then he would have legally been responsible and could legally see her. (after paternity, so that he could not deny her anymore).

He and his wife (wife now, was girlfriend since 02) were living on two incomes with no children.

I was a single mom, taking care of a preemie, that I will say is doing exceptionally well for what she has been thru.

So, I guess I could say yes, I did not have the funds to sustain myself thru the pendency of the action, until my husband came along and helped me. But at this point, his wife is unemployed and has been (they claim since the end of January and unemployment I believe last at the longest for 26 weeks) He is claiming that he cant find work, and that he is unable to work, and looking to file disability.

So, I get told things, but their is no proof to back up these things and they are inconsistent with the truth. My husband and I have sent emails to him of jobs that have been offered on the internet. My parents even offered to give him a job fixing the roof of there beach trailer. (Which I might add he stated that he would give them a deal, as long as he got to stay there and play with the child on the beach alone, by himself.) which he was ordered to supervised visitation. And the fact that my parents luckily checked around and found someone to do it for 1k less than what he stated he could give them a real deal for.

So back to the original, earning less than him. I would be hard pressed to prove, because he has the ability to set his own pay.

He also told me that he did some personal home improvements on his own home, by adding the cost to his clients bill.

Sounds extremely deceitful if you ask me. Not only that, but this person had six years to figure out what he needed to do to avoid paying support.

A dependent spouse may request attorney fees for PSS, alimony, and child support. However, the Court will not award attorney fees for Equitable Distribution. It is up to the judge on how much to award. Some dependent spouses receive 100% while others may receive none. If fees are awarded, the fee award usually will not cover all costs of the litigation and proceedings.