Here is the situation. I left my home in April for an alcohol rehab program (half-way house, not a rehab hospital), and at the time my Husband and I were not talking about separation, divorce or anything of the sort. I am also diagnosed with Major Depressive Order. I was only planning on staying here for six months, then moving back home. He blindsided me with an ED complaint. He is the sole provider, and has been for the last fifteen years.
He is refusing to provide me with even the smallest amount of support. I am recovering from a total knee replacement and can’t even look for a job right now, much less make my doctor’s co-pays (we have Federal Blue Cross\Blue Shield that he keeps threatening to cancel on me), buy medicine etc. I am in desperate need of financial assistance from him. Since he is the Plaintiff on the ED (and the only one of us that has a lawyer) I don’t know how to go about asking the court to order support.
I’m quite sure he will try to get out of paying me any support by citing that I am an alcoholic (in recovery). My drinking was always quietly at home. I was not a bar-hopper, cheater, violent drunk, or anything of the sort. I drank a lot to settle my nerves at the unbearable way my husband treated me, and it got to be too much, too often.
My husband’s motivation is and has always been money. In his mind, this is the perfect way to not have to pay out the co-pays for my surgery, food and clothing for me, christmas gifts, birthday gifts and so on. When it comes to money, he has never treated me like a spouse, but like a tenant that exchanges rent for cooking and cleaning, and has zero right to any money he earns.
He is taking advantage of the fact that I have no money to obtain a lawyer of my own.
How do I go about petitioning the court for postseparation support? What documents do I use? Do I list myself at the Plaintiff or Defendant?