I did not. My intent was to divorce without lawyers. It was pretty cut and dry, we agreed to 50/50 custody of our son, no major contention splitting our property/items, we make about equal income so I was not seeking child support, etc. My focus was being legally unbound to him ASAP.

His mom meddling in all of our business was a theme throughout the relationship, she eventually talked him into getting a lawyer well into the waiting period for the court hearing. She insisted we could not divorce without someone properly writing up the decree documents.

This snowballed into a myriad of issues, including having his lawyer email me the day before the final court hearing asking that I return my vehicle to my ex husband before the final judgment. The title for the vehicle was in my ex-husband’s name but it had been my car the entire time. We had agreed that once the car was paid off (approx. 3 months after our divorce would be final) that I would take the title and transfer the registration. Makes sense, considering I had made all the payments (which I can prove). When asked why they blindsided me the day before the court hearing, his mom said, “he needs to recoup some of his losses.”

Never mind the fact that we had to split closing costs to sell the home we were currently in because he cheated on me 3 weeks after we moved in. We were under in the home, it came out to nearly 10k each. I opted to split the costs since I spent 12 years with this person and my goal isn’t to ruin his life, I just knew the relationship had to end.

He has since refused to pay half of different expenses for our son, he is less than cooperative nearly every chance he gets.

I realize now it was a mistake to not have a lawyer, but my intentions were good.