post #1 of 1
1/26/11 at 4:04pm
Thread Starter 

Hi everyone,

 

I have been lurking for a while, and have learned a lot already from the wise mamas here.  I am starting to do some serious research and getting whatever information I need together to file for divorce.  I admit that it seems quite intimidating, as I've never dealt with a court system before.  I am going to be filing myself, without a lawyer (I know, I know everyone's advice will probably be DON'T!  But I truly believe that neither of us has any desire to screw the other one over, and I will keep my eye out for any sign of trouble).

 

I have heard about the filing fee being waived in the case of low income families, how do I go about finding out if I qualify ahead of time (I know we would, we are dead broke)?  Or do you just go in and ask for it to be waived when you file, but have the fee with you just in case?  Also, are there any negative repercussions to having the fee waived?  Will it make me look bad that we are too poor to pay the fee?  I do technically have the money for a fee, I just got my financial aid refund for school, but I would like to be able to save that as much as possible to supplement my income during the semester.

 

What do you bring with you when you go to file?  Anything?  (I am in Michigan if that makes a difference)

 

Does anyone have advice in regards to what makes you look good to a judge?  One (of many) reasons I am filing is a lack of financial stability.  Suffice to say that I am sick of "needing" to have expensive cable and up-to-date gadgets and not being able to afford bread and milk when I need it, so I have gone back to school full time to finish a bachelor's degree (have an associates already), and I have a pretty good paying office job with super flexible hours (I can basically write my own schedule).  We live in my MIL's house at the moment, and will both continue to live here, but hopefully on different floors soon (we currently have the basement), so my bills at the moment are VERY low, so I can get by quite easily for now with my financial aid money, saving my half of the tax refund, and the 15ish hours a week that I will be working (I worked about 40hrs a week for the past few weeks so I will have a couple large paychecks to save too).  However, is that going to make me look bad?  Living off of financial aid and only working 15 hours?  I *could* work as many hours as I want, but like I said it shouldn't be necessary while I am in school.  My main goal is to provide a stable home for my son, and prove that I am taking the necessary steps to ensure a good future for us.  I'm not trying to make myself look good and my husband bad or try to screw him out of custody or anything, but at the same time I don't want to get screwed over somehow either.  I'm just afraid (probably irrationally) of a judge randomly deciding "oh she's just a student right now, she can't support a child so I'm going to give full custody to the father" even though my husband and I would agree to split things evenly.  

 

Sorry for the super long rambley paragraphs here, I'm just not quite finding the right words that I want for the situation, it is all new to me and I don't entirely know exactly what I'm asking.  Just any general advice you can think of would be great.

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