Legal Question in Family Law in Ohio
I am trying to decide whether to hire a divorce attorney and file for divorce due to fraud or to just file a joint petition for dissolution which will cost significantly less.
The reason I want to possibly file due to fraud is because my husband, of just a little over a year, hid an alcohol addiction that quickly became a problem in our marriage (4 hospital visits, a lost job, a totaled car, a DUI and rehab along with physical violence and damage to our home from April-September). In addition he has also admitted to me, and our counselor, that he lied to me about religious beliefs and his desire to have children.
As a result of this fraud, I put $11,000 on a credit card to pay for our wedding which is not fully paid off due to his losing his job 6 months into our marriage. Also, I was still in undergrad when we got engaged. In order to graduate and get married and as a result of conversations with him based on our joint desire to get married and his future earning potential, I took out private student loans my last year of college in order to load up on credit hours and graduate quickly to get married. This was a $20,000 loan.
If I file for divorce due to fraud, am I likely to recoup any of that combined $31,000 therefore making it worthwhile to pay an attorney or am I better off simply cutting ties with my husband ? (We have no joint debt, no children, we rented our condo, and my car is solely in my name.)
Thanks for any advice you can offer!
1 Answer from Attorneys
In Ohio, a divorce court is required by law to split the assets and liabilities of the marriage equitably (meaning fairly) between the husband and wife. It does not sound like there is much to split in the way of assets. Any debt incurred during the marriage will usually be split between the parties.
As for the debts, while you did take on $20,000 in student loans, a court might be sympathetic to your husband's argument that you received the benefit of those loans while he got nothing from them. As for the wedding debt, the court might be more sympathetic to your argument that you would never have spent that money had he not concealed his problems from you.
If you hire an attorney, I don't know that it would cost that much because there isn't much to fight over. However, even if the Court did order that you husband pays the entire debt, if he doesn't have the money to pay it (and it sounds like it will be quite some time before he has any significant assets, if ever) then the creditors are going to be looking to you to pay it. You could bring a contempt of court action against him, but it sounds like he is going to be pretty used to going to jail by the time that were to happen, so an extra ten or 30 days in jail for contempt of court might not make too much of an impression.
Your best bet is to get out of this thing and get on with the productive area of your life as soon and as cheaply as you can.
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