Support Johnny's Fight for Fair Divorce Settlement

My name is Johnny and I’m a husband of almost 15 years and a father to 2 wonderful autistic children. Unfortunately, my wife has informed me that she wants a divorce. The reason she said she wants the divorce is that I will never change. The things she wants changed aren’t things like substance abuse, failure to work, violence, or anything like that. On the contrary, I put in 60 hours a week so she can be a stay-at-home mom like she asked to be. I rarely drink and have never done drugs. I have never raised my hand to anyone, called them names, or anything. I have never cheated on her or wanted to do anything that would hurt her. I asked her if we could seek marriage counseling to seek solutions to what she was having issues with. She turned me down immediately. I would much rather fix my marriage than be here asking for financial help, which brings me to why I have to ask.

As much as I work, my money is always gone or nearly gone almost as fast as it comes in. The day after she said she wanted to leave me, the email address and password attached to my bank account were changed without my authorization when it is only my name on the account. When I took back control of it and told her I would tell her what is there so we can pay the bills and she can still shop with the card for the kids for groceries and such, she started accusing me of financial abuse. I need money for a good lawyer so I can not be manipulated further through this process. My wife put a camera where I sleep, started voice recording everything just to try and catch me off guard doing or saying something wrong. She has called the police twice and they couldn’t do anything because I hadn’t done anything to anyone. Even the day she said she wanted to end things with me, it was someone else punching a wall and door and broke their knuckles and ulna. I’m not a violent person. However, she went outside with that person and told me to stay inside, and because I didn’t think it was safe for the kids to be out there with the person who had reacted violently, she told the cops they needed to come and see me. I asked my kids if either wanted to come inside with me and my daughter did, so I was accused of “taking her hostage.” My point here is I’m being treated like the enemy and nothing that I do seems to be okay. The only way I am going to be able to get money is to ask for help and put it in my PayPal that she has zero access to.

I had to create this because previously I needed to get a PC and she was willing to get one for our roommates and her, but I had to come up with money for my own. I sincerely appreciate anyone who can help me with this. I just want to get out of it with as little hurt to me and my kids as possible. I have even asked her about selling the house so we can live apart, but next to each other, for the kids, in a neighborhood that is being built with prefabricated houses. I even offered to give some of my half to get her home paid off and start out only dealing with lot fees. She is still seemingly reluctant. I am trying to keep her set up so I can see my kids daily still and work nights. I figure taking care of her helps take care of the kids. I may be giving too much and I honestly don’t know, hence I need the lawyer so I can walk away with some way to survive life. I’m asking for help with attorney fees and anything beyond that will help make sure that as the divorce ends that my credit can be worked on so I can get a fresh start without drowning. Every attorney I have spoken with is 5k retainer fee minimum, but that doesn’t count if we go beyond that initial amount. Anything beyond the retainer gets into $200+ per hour, which is why I asked for the extra $500 beyond the retainer fees. The lawyer that sounded the most confident and ready to help me win everything was actually a $7.5k retainer fee. I do genuinely want the best chance of success, though I don’t want to seem greedy asking for more money. Every penny will go towards this situation and trying to come out of it in one piece. Thank you all for sharing this around with anyone you know that can help and for all you give.