After 17 years of marriage and two children I found out my husband had been having affairs during our marriage, I was devastated and realised that he would never change and that I would have to divorce him. We separated, I took our two children who were then 10 and 12 and we moved away.
I made an arrangement for them to see their father every over weekend and a day in the week. It worked until I filed for the divorce, when he got the papers he got nasty, said I wouldn’t get a penny and that he would take the kids away from me. See you in court he said. We went to court, him with his solicitors and me on my own. I couldn’t afford a solicitor so attended by myself. He lied about his salary, his company, refused to produce accounts etc. I had to get a solicitor to help me, with their help I was awarded £1,400 per month pending hearing.
At the next court date he still lied and still didn’t produce his accounts. This went on for a year; he then stopped paying altogether, and just recently 2 years after our first court date he now claims to be bankrupt. This is now being investigated but 6 months on he has not paid for his children, and I now owe £5,000 in legal fees, £4,000 bank loan, £2,500 mortgage arrears and with my full time job (I work for the NHS) bringing in £2,050 per month I am unable to pay my legal costs which are still on-going and trying to get my ex-husband investigated for bankruptcy fraud. I am trying to raise the money to pay the Solicitors £5,000 outstanding fees, I just don’t have any other way to get help, I am not entitled to legal aid and I still need the solicitor’s assistance for the next court hearing in 3 months’ time.