Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
Not honoring a divorce decree
My wife's ex-husband was required in her divorce decree to continue for two years to pay her car note and insurance since both of their vehicles were financed. In return she would not seek any of his 401k assests or any of the liquid assets. The car note is in his name. Since the decree was finalized he has quite paying the note and the finance company has filed a civil matter against her in LA where the car was financed. The ex-husband was not served because he stated that he does not know the whereabouts of the vehicle even though the car is in his name. The divorce decree has been broken by her ex repeatedly and the court says that their is not much that can be done at this point. We cannot afford to hire another attorney to challenge the inforcement of the decree. What course of action do we have?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Not honoring a divorce decree
You did not say where the divorce took place so that makes it difficult to answer your question. Wherever it was granted, she needs to go back to the court of continuing jurisdiction and file a motion for enforcement against him. The court will find him in contempt for failure to obey the order of the court - unless he proves that he is without the ability to make the payments. If the court finds that he has the ability, then ultimately he could be fined or jailed for contempt.
The bad news is all of this will cost you a considerable sum of money because you will need a lawyer to handle this for you - the procedures involved and the notice requirements are far too complex for you too handle pro se. You will also need local counsel in L.A. to handle the civil suit against you - which I find rather confusing - why should they sue you if he in fact told them he didn't know where the car was and he is the only one on the note?
This is a very complex problem and I can't advise you strongly enough to seek counsel to defend your rights.
Best of Luck
Stephanie T. Shipp
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