Legal Question in Family Law in California

I have been married for 15 years and have two kids. Both my wife and I work but my monetary contributions were much much higher than my wife's and we have had joint accounts. All our possessions are in joint account. For the past few months my wife is acting wierd because of her bitterness towards me and she took a substantial amount of money which she had gotten and gave it to an organization. I am worried that she will do more harm to our financial position by making unilateral decisions. Could you please let me know how I can protect myself financially?

Thanks a lot.


Asked on 3/27/10, 8:14 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

You can start by opening separate accounts and moving your joint money into your separate account. Close joint credit accounts and open separate ones. Basically take anything that is joint and shut it down. Of course if you do that, you must be prepared for the consequences, which will probably include some form of retaliatory financial conduct, and may include her filing for divorce or legal separation. The only other thing you can do is file for divorce yourself. Once she is served with the divorce papers, she (and you) will be under an automatic court order not to dispose of any community assets except for the necessities of life. In either case, considering you have two children who need both of you to put them first through what you are facing, you both need to get some advice and counseling on how to deal with each other, and either work on your marriage, or work on making a divorce as easy on the kids and yourselves as possible.

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Answered on 4/01/10, 9:05 pm


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