Wife Quit Her Job and is Now Filing for Divorce
My question involves a marriage in the state of: New Jersey
Hello - My wife has said she is filing for divorce. This question involves some of the financial concerns I have if she follows through.
Some background -
1. My wife voluntarily resigned from her job a couple months ago without notice. It had gotten to the point where her coworkers were filing HR complaints against her due to her belligerent behavior over some company changes (they were going to "demote" her to a smaller team and less responsibility as the new boss was bringing more people in, but she would have retained her title and salary. She did not want her boss to do this so it got ugly.) She resigned because she got the sense that they were building a case to fire her and she wanted to leave before this happens. I had told her to just accept the changes, play nice, and find a new job, but I have no evidence that I did this.
2. Since then, she has been actively looking for a job with no success.
3. As an alternative, she is starting her own company. This company is intended to be completely under her. In order to get started, she has applied for a 200k small business loan. I heard her on the phone and she even told the loan officer that it is to be completely separate from her spouse. It is doubtful that her business would be profitable by the time the divorce is done.
4. We have kept our finances essentially separate. Only a small joint account to care for our child. I have been paying for everything in our primary residence, titled only to me and bought before the marriage. She has her own separate premarital home under only her name, which she has been paying everything for. Her parents live there for free while she lives with me. She claims her parents as dependents. They are not at retirement age yet. The homes are worth roughly the same, although I believe she has more equity in her home than I do. She has probably 200k in equity in her home.
5. She has very little savings.
6. Grounds for divorce would likely be irreconcilable differences only.
7. We have been married for 2 years. We have one child and another on the way.
Here are my questions -
1. If she files for divorce and does not find a job, will I be expected to pay for her attorney fees? She has equity in her home...would selling that be the first option or would me paying her fees?
2. Am I liable for her loan? If we got a divorce and she could not make loan payments, would I be expected to pay them? The loan and title of her business will not have my name anywhere on it. I expect she is going to use some of that loan to pay her attorney fees if she files. We filed taxes jointly last year.
3. In a settlement, would the judge expect me to pay for her home if she cannot find work and her business fails? She would probably move back there. I don't make enough money to support two homes of the size that we have.
4. Will the fact that she voluntarily left her job hurt her claims for monetary settlement? Meaning....it was her choice to leave so, honestly, this is really all her own doing. I am wondering if that would have an impact on settlement.
5. Finally, can her financial state and actions above be used against her in child custody? She says she is going to go for full physical custody of the children, which I would have to fight.
Please advise - thank you!
Re: Wife Quit Her Job and is Now Filing for Divorce
Your wife can petition the court to get attorney fees advanced from the marital estate, and could conceivably petition the court to have you pay some portion of her fees at the conclusion of the case. Whether or not she would succeed in such an effort will depend upon facts not available to us, and thus is something you should discuss with your lawyer. In most divorce cases the parties end up paying their own fees, but it is not unreasonable for a spouse who has no assets to seek an advance from the marital estate in order to hire a lawyer.
If your spouse signs up for a business loan exclusively in her own name, and you don't cosign for the loan and receive no benefit from the loan, then you should not be responsible for the loan. As it appears that you still live with your spouse, you should discuss the details of this loan and what will be done with the proceeds with your divorce lawyer to ensure that you are not later subject to a claim by your ex- or, depending upon what the full facts turn out to be, by the lender.
If you have children and your ex- has primary custody, you can expect to pay child support. Your ex- may qualify for spousal support. Your lawyer can guide you through what financial support you may have to contribute to your spouse, based upon the full facts of your case, the length of your marriage, your relative income and earning capacity, and other relevant factors.
You don't win a custody case merely by claiming that you have more money than your ex-. Child support balances that out.