Court continuance

Last year I presented a motion for temporary spousal support. In his response, my spouse stated that I was not entitled to this support and as an alternative to spousal support he made the following offer to the court in his declaration. He stated that me, the petitioner could maintain sole use of the residence home until it sold and that he would be responsible for paying the full mortgage until the house was sold without esptein credits.

The judge ruled and made it a court order that my spouse paid the mortgage.

My spouse later convinced me to take him back and convinced me to move out of our home and rent it out to save money.

We moved into an apartment together for the next eight months or so. Un-knowing to me, my spouse keep the apartment that he had been living in during the separation without my knowledge. When I found this out I decided to continue divorce proceeding.

We moved back into our residence home and when I found out that he had been deceiving me and never had intentions of making the marriage work. He only wanted me out of the house so that he would not be responsible for paying the house note as it was ordered by the court.

The divorce was not cancelled. The court ruling which ordered my spouse to pay the mortgage was the last action taken in the divorce proceeding and was not vacated by the court.

I filed for a motion requesting that the judge order my spouse to adhere to the court order forthwith and to bring the mortgage current and continue paying the mortgage until the house is sold. In addition, I requested that if the judge did not see fit to enforce the court order, then I asked the judge to award me spousal support.

Within the next week the intent to foreclose will expire and the lender will begin actual foreclosure proceeding.

The court papers was served to my spouse's attorney 27 calendar days prior to the hearing date and 19 business days. He was served in a timely manner.

Eight (8) days later I am served with discovery documents which will not be due for inspection on September 5, 2000, almost one month after our court date for the motion to have the previous court order enforced.

Now, Finally, down to my actual question:

The opposing counsel has requested a continuance until after his discovery document would be due to him. This will enable him to attempt to use these documents to fight my motion to the court.

I denied his continuance request because if he was granted this continuance, by then, our home would have been in foreclosure status for a full month in a half with a large amount of attorney fees added to the delinquent amount.

In addition, I have not been able to find employment and I am in danger of having my utilities disconnected and I am without any funds for every day necessities. My spouse has not contributed one dime to either me or the paying of the mortgage for the last two months.

I would like to know what law exist that I can research on the granting and denial of continuances. I need to know what legal leg that I have to stand on. It is now eleven (11) days before my court hearing and I have not received a response to the motion to have the previous court order enforced. According to the divorce laws, isn't there a specific amount of time in which the opposing counsel has to submit his response to me and the court prior to the hearing date?