About a month ago I told my wife I wanted a divorce when I was overwhelmed by her addiction to narcotic pain medications and her inability to do anything productive with her life. She spent her hours either sleeping or in bed watching TV, unless she had to go to a doctor or some other place, but 90% of her time was spent as I described.
Because I came here from another country to marry her, and she has her whole family here, I tried to make her understand that she was the one who had to move out, however at no point I actually kicked her out. I didn’t tell her something like “I want you out of here”, or take the keys away from her (she still has the keys). About a week ago she went to her mother’s supposedly to spend the night, but then she ended up staying there definitely. She asked me to bring over her computer and a few other things. While it wasn’t right away because it was snowing and carrying things out was kind of dangerous, eventually she came here last Sunday and we took her computer and a few more of her things.
Between me and her things are more or less in good terms, but her mother always hated me and now she wants to do as much harm as possible to me. She told her my wife that she expects me to give her from $500 to $600 a month in alimony. I make a small salary that barely gets me to the end of each pay period every two weeks, in fact today, the day before I get paid, I have about $4 in my checking account, and that’s a typical situation for every pay period. I rarely go out to eat, if I do it’s to fast food places, to me even Applebee’s is a luxury. And that is if I don’t lose my job in the current economic crisis.
Now, even though I want to end the marriage because of several problems, I do love my wife and I wasn’t planning on leaving her without any money at all, I was going to give her money for gas, medications, expenses, I was going to buy her things from the store and bring them to her, but I wasn’t planning on any set amount. I was going to give her money on a need to basis.
So my question is, am I supposed to pay my wife alimony during the separation year, before I even file for divorce? Can she take me to court and have a judge cease a specific amount off my paycheck? If so, would I have the ability to demonstrate the judge through bank statements that I barely make ends meet and that I don’t have a lot of money to give her as alimony?
Also, she told me that her mother, in her quest to destroy me, found a lawyer that will work pro-bono for her. I don’t have such luxury. I would probably have to represent myself, because I simply don’t have a dime to pay a lawyer. Is there any place I can go to in Wake Co. that will provide me with a free lawyer, or will the court provide my one if I can’t afford it?
One last question I left out: Am I supposed to go to court and file for separation to get the separation legally started?