There's nothing to ruin a 4th of July celebration like knowing you have to get up at 6 am the next morning to go to court to be sued by your ex-wife. What makes it even better is when you drive downtown, pay for all day parking (because you know that's how long it will take) only to find out that the court has moved the hearing off calendar (meaning it is to be rescheduled but they haven't chosen a date yet) and not bothered to let you know. Thanks California Courts!
I'd like to add, at this point, that the reason my ex is suing me is because at the time of the divorce, I agreed to handle the debts. I did this by filing chapter 7 (which I was well within qualifying criteria for). I included her in the bankruptcy, rewriting all the paperwork and having her sign it at the office. Then, a couple weeks before the actual time of speaking with the judge to confirm the bankruptcy, she skips town with the kids. (This was the second time she had done that).
Laws of Bankruptcy require the filer to be AT the hearing. You cannot be out of state or do a phone-hearing. I told her this, of course, but she was un-phased. So I went through with it. Keep in mind, most of the debt was under my name only, anyways.
When she learned that I got out of all the debt she wanted me to pay (and which she wasn't even liable for), she filed a lawsuit. She used my agreement to take care of the debts at the time of divorce as her grounds for the lawsuit.
However, the debts she listed on the lawsuit included the student loans she had before I even met her, two credit cards she opened up and maxed out behind my back while we were married. She did this by telling me that all the packages coming in the mail were gifts from her family... even though we had plenty of money as I was still in the Navy with free housing and full E4 pay plus sea pay and nuke pay.
When we had gone to marital counseling, the counselors told her that her homework was to tell me about these credit cards. The counselor determined that she had done this not out of necessity (as I was gone at sea and she controlled most of the funds anyway) but out of a need to be secretive and do something without me knowing. Which, if you think about it, makes no sense since, again, I was gone most of the time and didn't know what she was doing anyhow.
I hope I did a well-enough job of showing that this lawsuit has nothing to do with financial need (at the time she filed it I was already paying $2,200 a month in child support, $500 a month in medical and dental, and was just ordered to pay another $400 in spousal support - that's $3,100 a month - which was more than 100% of my total net earnings from my job). Also, keep in mind, that she had free housing and no car payment - so her only bills were food and clothing.
I'll let you guess where all that money was going.
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