Legal Question in Family Law in California

California Divorce

I am 56 years old, my wife is 49, we have been married for 18 years. For the past ten years I have received Social Security Disability benefits and two years ago I took early retirement and am receiving a union pension. My wife worked and those were the sources of our income. Two years ago my wife returned to using drugs (we both had the problem but had been sober for ten years). She lost her job and has not stopped using. I have tried to stick by her, putting my own sobriety and sanity at risk, but the situation has become intolerable. I realize that all I am doing is enabling her continuing use and putting myself at risk. If I pursue divorce would she be able to claim a portion of my disability benefits and pension (the pension was entirely funded from work I did prior to the marriage but when I took retirement I chose a plan which would give her lifetime survivor benefits). Can I put her out of our apartment based upon her actions or if I proceed to file for divorce would she be the one who is allowed to stay? I don't want to harm her or take revenge on her, I love her, but as long as she has, or expects to have, a support system she will not face the reality of the harm she is doing to herself.


Asked on 5/29/07, 6:31 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
PATRICK MCCRARY PATRICK MCCRARY

Re: California Divorce

If the pension was earned prior to marriage then it is your separate property. You can have her removed from the home, but after a hearing and with an order from the judge. Good Luck, Pat McCrary

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Answered on 5/30/07, 10:57 am


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