questions & answers

Question: I've been married for 10 yrs,all of which I have been a homemaker.My spouse and I have 2 kids one is disabled.Since separating he has tried to control me with money,only giving me $150 biweekly which I am to support the kids on.I have filed for divorce and am awaiting our hearing for temporary orders.Before I left I paid the bills as I usually did.But he then took over our joint account where he let checks bounce.One I was turned into county attorney for.They are now on me to pay it.I have 0 income barely feeding kids it was his bill for home.Can I legally withdraw $ from jnt acct to pay this?

Answer: Generally, even during a divorce, either party may use marital money for ordinary life expenses, such as food, clothing and shelter/utilities. Each person will be asked to make an accounting for any marital income that is spent, so each party may want to keep careful track of what was bought with the money taken from that joint account and why it was bought.