My Husband Cut Off All Money During My California Divorce

This is going to be episode 1 of our Divorce Stories if you will. So we come up of a better name.

People have asked us to discuss some of the things we see. And they hope so they identify with what we’re doing and how we fix the particular circumstances.

So this episode is going to be about what to do when your spouse stops paying you alimony, child support, spousal support, you know, if there’s money issues and things in that nature.

So this was a new client of ours who contacted us her and her husband had recently separated. She was not working.

The husband was working. And he had always paid all the bills and so forth. And they’re separated for about a month or so.

And the husband suddenly and without warning said, ‘I’m not giving you anymore money at all. I’m not going to give you money for the kids. I’m not going to give you any money for foods. I’m not going to give you money for groceries and for anything.’

And so she contacted our office and asked what could be done. Now we see this quite a bit.

This is not uncommon thing when party separated and one spouse is making the money where they suddenly without warning make money inaccessible.

And what we tell folks is if possible maintain the status equal.

If you’re separated, okay, things are not good but you have kids or whether you do or not you have the spouse of many years, you should in good faith you should continue to give them some money.

You know try and maintain the status equal even if you’ve moved out you know paying the bills, it still have to get paid and so forth.

Well this person cut off the money entirely. They had kids. No money for gas, foods, nothing, not even for their rent and withdrew all the money from the account.

And this person had a few dollars left in the bank account you know contacted us for assistance and asked what we could do.

Well, number one, the first thing we can do is that for parties are in agreement we can put together a Stipulation Order, a Stipulation and an Order.

Parties could stipulate which simply means agree out of court to a set amount and then the parties have an agreement is writing signed by the parties signed by the judge and they’re good to go.

However, in this particular case where one party totally cuts off income completely basically closed all the accounts and removes all the money, obviously, this is something that’s not going to go by agreement.

So what we had to do in this particular case is file what’s called a Request for Order. What it is, it’s a motion you file with the court to get a court date.

So that the parties can go to court so the judge can make an order over in many issues.

But in this case it’s going to be over the custody of the children and for alimony. So this person can start getting some money in the door.

That’s the only way you’re officially going to get a court order either by Stipulation or by filing a motion with the court.

And as I mentioned either by agreement you can do the Stipulation but in this particular case it just wasn’t going to happen.

So we had to file a motion immediately, file for Divorce immediately as so, she can in the court as soon as possible to get a court date so she can get an order for child support and alimony and spousal support because without that there really is no order.

There’s nothing foreseen this person to pay her money until there’s an order from the court except for, you know, of course integrity that takes of the person the people involved.

I want to take care of the folks involved in the case. But without that there’s no order of the court then they technically don’t have to pay anything.

So if you need assistance with this, this is something we do. Obviously, we can file motions, get your court dates and draft Stipulations.

I just want to share with you if you find yourself in the similar circumstances those are your options.

And with the courts delays you should file this right away because courts are taking about 45 days 60 weeks before you’ll step in the court for that hearing.

So you’re going to go for good 60-90 days without any money. So like I told this new client of ours we have to get her in that same day the date of the bank accounts were emptied out and get that file with the court and get her court date as soon as possible.

I hope this was informative. And if you need assistance similar to this please feel free to give us a call.

We’ll talk to you soon.