<p>I announced on another thread that my parents were getting divorced. Now the reality of it all sets in. In the hustle and bustle of finding a lawyer, etc., I guess I’m getting lost in all of it.</p>
<p>I just had a few questions:</p>
<p>(1) My father is considered to be the primary breadwinner of the family, with my mother… well, she makes some, but nowhere near as much as my father. Legal fees are going to be immense, and most likely my father will be able to recover from the financial blow faster than my mother. Is there anyway to defray the legal costs onto my father, since he is the petitioner for divorce?</p>
<p>(2) There are property issues at stake here; but all my mother really wants to do is protect the primary property that we live on. We’ve received a settlement offer from the petitioning party, offering to hand that 50% (under community property laws) of the primary property to me, under a trust (the document does not state who is the trustee, probably my father, in which case that undermines the whole purpose of the trust anyway). </p>
<p>Problem is, as I soon discovered, three other properties (and the company that my father owns) are listed as sole and separate property. I am under the impression that by law, you can’t list something as sole and separate without the consent of the other spouse OR you are separated with the intent to separate (Baragry, 1977). My father has a) not accomplished the former or b) used fraud [forgery] to obtain my mother’s signature and c) has appeared in public several times with my mother solely for the sake of maintaining the appearance of a marriage, something that I remember Baragry addressed.</p>
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<p>Ignoring all of this (the legal mumbo jumbo), however, I’d like to mention that my mom is growing tired and weary of fighting my father. She has already expressed a loss of interest in pursuing the divorce; she just wants to sign it on his terms and move on. But from all the damage that my father’s caused to my mother, I tell her I think it’s unfair that she lets him get away with adultery like this without any consequences (financial or otherwise).</p>
<p>My mom isn’t Internet-saavy, and she has a limited knowledge of the English language, with almost no experience in navigating legalese. I do the research for her because she asks me to, but at the same time, I see the tired expression on her face. </p>
<p>All the parties involve know that my father will most likely marry the illegal nonresident that is pressuring him (and has been pressuring him for years) for a “green-card marriage.” My father’s family is pushing my mother to take my father back (which she has no intention of doing, partially because my father has no desire to come back to our home). </p>
<p>Above all this, however, I’m confused. I know I’m a minor and I know I shouldn’t dip my hand into the legal affairs; however, I don’t have much of a choice. Someone went over the details of the case (pro-bono, thank goodness, as the cost of these attorney fees are going to start to rack up) and said that not all attorneys have knowledge of this sort of thing, so the person who advised me (my Mock Trial instructor) told me to stay close to my mother and to alert the lawyer on what he/she needs to be alerted on.</p>
<p>I don’t want my family to waste $100,000 on a silly divorce case when that money could be spent on something else. (like my college tuition… hehehe… little bit of humor in dark times never hurt). Does anyone have any advice?</p>