What is he Liable for

[JillMarieMorris]

I live in Oregon, I've been Married now for 12 years come this June. 4 years ago my husband had an affair which produced a child, brought home Herpes to me and he has been in and out of this house ever since. He has left me 100% liable for the Mortgage and ALL bills. Even the bills he helped occur before the so called "Seperation" which was never legalized.

I wanted to have a "Civil" seperation or Divorce, but he promised me that he would help me out with the bills (and I foolishly believed him) but he hasn't paid 1 red cent.

NOW I need to know, In the state of Oregon, is he liable for any the my bills. Oh, I should mention that the House we, (I) live in is in my name because his credit was so bad.
And all the Credit cards and Utilities, except for a few, are in my name for the same reason.

This can't be right that he is NOT responsible for any of the finances' "WE" occured during the Marriage.

I was willing to be nice, but NOW I WANT BLOOD!

I've put out a ton of money, and he lives with his parents for free. Something is wrong with this Picture. PLUS!!!!! the woman he had the Child with receives money for a 3 month affair, I put in 9 years at that time.

Please help me and make me a happy camper.

Thank you...

 

[dorenephilpot]

I can answer only in terms of Indiana law, which is where I practice law.

With that in mind:

Divorce the rascal. He needs to pay child support, and he needs to be paying half the bills that were incurred during the marriage. Child support can be dated back to the time of the split, in which case he'll have a significant arrearage to catch up with you.

You can ARGUE that he shouldn't be entitled to any equity in the house because you have been paying that and acquired it without his help. Now, that being said, he IS legally entitled to half of what accrued while you were married, but the judge might see a sort of justice for him in letting you keep all the equity because, after all, you have been paying all the bills in his absence.

Now, I don't know if Oregon is a no-fault state or not. What that means is that in a no-fault you can cite an irretrievable breakdown/irreconcilable differences and don't have to tell the court what he did to earn the title Worst Husband of the Decade. The court doesn't care WHY.

That information would be useful in a custody battle (to show morals and character) but not really for much else in a no-fault state.

You need to get to court and get this handled. Don't let it languish. And this is something that you're definitely going to need legal counsel for.

I know money is probably tight, but you can't afford NOT to hire an attorney.

Let me know if this helped at all. OK?