Confused Mother-In-Law

[tmjacks]

Florida, Pasco County

Hello,

I am new to this forum and was hoping to get advice from people who have been in this situation before. All of this concerns my 59 year old mother-in-law and her separation from her 71 year old abusive husband.

To make a very long story short, my father-in-law was abusive a couple times to my mother-in-law. We believe he is in early stages of dementa. He was baker acted about 3 weeks ago. After he got out of the hospital after 72 hours he came home and left and has not been back since.

He emptied the joint bank account they had with each other totaling 12,000 dollars.

She is currently living in the house where they have lived together for 22 years and he is currently living at an unknown address.

Basicly I am trying to find some advice on what she should do next. He took all the money so she is thinking about selling some of the joint assets to recover some of the money that he took. Is this a good idea?

She is worried about getting a divorce because of a couple of reasons. She is afraid of the costs from lawyers. His name is the only one on the home and she is affraid that she will be kicked out even though he abandonded the residence over 2 weeks ago.

So here is the main questions:
If they stay separated (not legally) does anyone know what rights she does has as his wife of 22 years?

If he or she does file for a divorce is there cheaper ways to go about it around this area instead of a high price lawyer?

In a divorce does she only get the things with her name on it or are all the assets considered family assets and split?

And finally,
Is there anything that needs to be done to protect her from legal recorse (eviction) or can she be sure that being legally married to him protects her from such things? (Her name is not on the deed to the house. Only in his but she has been a resident for 22 years.)

Any advice on this subject would be much appreciated. As neither of us has ever been through this we do not know the right steps to take. And since he took all the money going to a lawyer is realy not an option at this time.

Thank you in advance for your response

-T. Jacks

[mistoffolees]

Originally Posted by tmjacks

Florida, Pasco County

Hello,

I am new to this forum and was hoping to get advice from people who have been in this situation before. All of this concerns my 59 year old mother-in-law and her separation from her 71 year old abusive husband.

To make a very long story short, my father-in-law was abusive a couple times to my mother-in-law. We believe he is in early stages of dementa. He was baker acted about 3 weeks ago. After he got out of the hospital after 72 hours he came home and left and has not been back since.

He emptied the joint bank account they had with each other totaling 12,000 dollars.

She is currently living in the house where they have lived together for 22 years and he is currently living at an unknown address.

Basicly I am trying to find some advice on what she should do next. He took all the money so she is thinking about selling some of the joint assets to recover some of the money that he took. Is this a good idea?

She is worried about getting a divorce because of a couple of reasons. She is afraid of the costs from lawyers. His name is the only one on the home and she is affraid that she will be kicked out even though he abandonded the residence over 2 weeks ago.

So here is the main questions:
If they stay separated (not legally) does anyone know what rights she does has as his wife of 22 years?

If he or she does file for a divorce is there cheaper ways to go about it around this area instead of a high price lawyer?

In a divorce does she only get the things with her name on it or are all the assets considered family assets and split?

And finally,
Is there anything that needs to be done to protect her from legal recorse (eviction) or can she be sure that being legally married to him protects her from such things? (Her name is not on the deed to the house. Only in his but she has been a resident for 22 years.)

Any advice on this subject would be much appreciated. As neither of us has ever been through this we do not know the right steps to take. And since he took all the money going to a lawyer is realy not an option at this time.

Thank you in advance for your response

-T. Jacks

She should file for divorce to protect herself. If she remains married to him, she is responsible for any debts he runs up. Even worse, if he has an accident and injures or kills someone, she could lose everything in a lawsuit.

Since she is living in the house and he abandoned it (and he appears to be incompetent, although she'll probably need an expert witness to establish that), odds are good that she will get the home even though it's in his name, although she will have to give him half of the equity in the home.

As is usually the case, seeing an attorney looks expensive, but the alternative can be many, many times more expensive.