Bridgewater, NJ Divorce Law Firms & Lawyers

You are in the middle of a divorce, and I presume that you are representing yourself.  A also presume that you and your spouse are no longer living together and despite the fact that he no longer is living in the house with you, he has continued to pay for the expenses of the house but he has not given you money for your auto expenses or for your personal expenses. And, as a result of him not giving you money for those expenses, you have been taking money out of the bank account[s] on a monthly basis to pay for those expenses. And, im going to presume that since the divorce matter has started, he no longer is depositing his paycheck into those accounts and as a result, the account balance has been declining. The real question for the court is when your spouse moved out and began paying for the shelter expenses BUT refused to pay for your auto expenses and your personal expenses, what communications took place between you and him as to how you would pay for those additional costs? Did you tell him that if he didn’t pay for them, you would have no choice but to take the money from the accounts each month to pay for them or did he tell you that you needed to work and that you needed to pay for those expenses yourself?  Regardless of whether I agree or disagree with whatever your spouse told you, what was your response? If he told you to take the money from the account, then the decline in the account balance is simple and was an agreed-upon action. If he told you to get a job and pay for them yourself and your response was that you could not do so and that you planned to take the money from the account for payment purposes, then that is a different setting and the judge will then have to focus on whether you could have gotten a job to assist in the payment of expenses or not and whether your actions were reasonable in taking money from the account.  The next question that a judge will focus on is whether your spouse knew that you were invading the account for payment of your expenses or not. If the account was in joint name and each of you had access to it online (and the account login remained the same), then again, its relevant to the court’s analysis.  Lastly, if there was a significant disparity in your income settings, I am not sure I understand why you didn’t file an application with the court for the court to put in place an interim support obligation upon your spouse. Obviously, if you had done so and he did not comply and you were forced to take the money from the account, then the court could charge the decrease in the account against his share of the account, as opposed to dividing the account otherwise.   

You need someone who is knowledgeable about BOTH things. If your divorce attorney is not comfortable with DV cases or has not done many, you should seek someone who has. Call anytime. Edward Zohn, Attorney at Law, 908.791.0312