Will Ex-Husband Have to Pay Attorney's Fees

In the Separation Agreement which was incorporated into the Judgment of Divorce, but not merged, the Wife is entitled to an equivalent health insurance policy.

The ex-wife currently has Cobra for the health insurance policy provided by the NYPD and it is about to end. The ex-spouses cannot agree as to what is deemed an equivalent policy.

If the Ex-husband is taken to Court because the ex-wife will not accept the policies he is offering, policies that he believes are comparable to what she currently has, will the Judge make the ex-husband pay for his ex-wife's attorney fees?

The ex-wife only wants a GHI core policy and is claiming that this is the only equivalent policy and that the ex-husband had better give it to her or she is taking him to court.

The ex-husband keeps forwarding other insurance policies that he believes are equivalent and that are something he can afford.

The plan the ex-wife is insisting on would cause an extreme financial hardship to the ex-husband and his new family.

The ex-husband's only fear in going to court is having to pay for the ex-wife's attorney fees. The ex-husband is representing himself. The ex-wife just sold the former marital home and will have over $400,000 for herself.

Thank you.

.

Maybe. Maybe not.

I took my ex to court when he refused to agree to pay a nickle of child support toward our child's expenses.

The custody order had been in place and was a good order. There was no change of circumstances that would have justified a modification of the custody order.

I was in a financial hardship directly because my ex refused to pay child support during our four-year separation.

I hired an atty to seek court-ordered child support. Thus, a further financial hardship.

My atty asked for child support and legal fees.

My ex's atty filed (as I predicted) what I considered a frivolous cross-motion seeking a modification of the custody order to joint physical custody.

After a $4,000 court battle, the court ordered my ex to pay child support. She threw out his request for a modification of the custody order.

But the judge denied me any legal fees to be paid by my ex - even though he was in a much better financial situation, having filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy and thus debt free.

My atty explained that the judge probably did this for one or two reasons:

1) I was the higher-income earner - even though I was in a worse financial situation.

and/or

2) The judge almost never awards his client's legal fees - because he felt she didn't like him. (?)

So - the answer to your question: There's no set rules whether the husband will be ordered to pay legal fees. Often, though - the higher income-earner does not receive legal fees from the lower-income earner.

Counsel fees are usually awarded when there is a great disparity in income, when one side intentionally disobeys an order without making any effort to reasonably comply, or as a punishment for making frivilous applications to the court.

Its impossible to predict how your case will be decided based upon a few sentences of information, however, since the husband seems to making efforts to find an equivalent policy, that will work in his favor.

Another thing to consider as well - how does the agreement define equivalent, if at all. An argument to investigate is whether equivalent means close in coverage and close in cost to the original policy in question.

J. Douglas Barics
www.jdbar.com