Buffalo Divorce Attorney Explains What to do When Your Spouse is Refusing to Pay Marital Bills

As an experienced Buffalo Divorce Attorney I occasionally see situations where a spouse if refusing to pay marital bills until the divorce is finalized. Divorce can be a very vulnerable process to go through, especially financially. When one party has access to funds and the other party doesn’t or if bills have generally been paid jointly between the parties, you may need to seek court intervention to order the other party’s continued participation in paying the household expenses and perhaps the expenses for the children as well. Your attorney can either resolve that through a conversation with the other party’s attorney or a motion may need to be filed to bring that issue before the court and the court can order who’s going to pay what. At the start of a divorce along with the summons, the Notice of Automatic Orders is served and what that sets forth is that the status quo continues through the divorce process, so until issues of support have been resolved, maintenance and child support, the court expects that the bills are going to paid in the manner they were paid prior to the divorce process having started. The court will ensure that both parties are participating in that process so that the bills are paid.