Legal Question in Family Law in California

You can find an attorney, who can go to court and seek an order that your wife pays for all or part of your legal representation. Sometimes, family law attorneys will take the case without anything up front, depending on the motion for your wife's payment. I have found, though, that most attorneys will ask for something up front to cover the expenses associated with the beginning of the case and the motion for fees.

Family Court is a court of equity, meaning it can do anything within reasonable and rational discretion to carve out a fair result (with some statutory exceptions). One express power is to allocate the burden of attorneys fees fairly. The court strongly prefers parties to be represented, and particularly to have both parties represented rather than just one. Whether or not you really cannot afford an attorney once all is said and done would be a decision for the court to make, but with a 3x differential in income, there is a pretty good chance she would be ordered to pay some or all of your fees.

There is a statute, Family Code section 2030, that provides the court with authority to order one party to pay the other party's attorney's fees based on needs and ability to pay. But application of that statute often depends on the facts of the case, and what the judge finds to be reasonable.