Case Description

My spousal support is up for review next month. We signed an agreement three years ago and divorced at that time. I have primary care of our childen ages five and seven. I have a low paying part-time job but my obilgation to my children has prevented me from getting a full-time job. I have not worked full-time since becoming pregnant with our first child and stopped working all together when our second child was born. I was out of the work force completely for three years when we divorced. I gave up a promising career as an executive to look after our children. I am middle-aged and have an arts degree. My income has steadily declined since having children. Meanwhile, my ex-spouse has seen his income increase annually and it has taken a big leap since we divorced. He has worked as a CA for 20 years with no break in employment. He does not have the children during the week so he can work all he wants and do everything he needs to build his career. He was under the impression that when our agreement comes up for review he could stop paying spousal support but I think I have convinced him that he continues to be under that obligation. I am looking for a lawyer who can help me make an application for spousal support review/variation. I spent a fortune getting my first agreement and don\'t want to spend a lot now. I also would like to have something in place that helps me avoid going to court every three years. Mediation is out of the question as this was an abuse situation. I know there are spousal support guidelines and judges generally follow them. The exceptions don\'t apply to me as we had an equal distribution of assets and I lost the family home. Is there someone who can help me put together a case based on the guidelines? If there is room for negotiation he will keep fighting at all costs until he wins. He just about bankrupted himself last time in his quest to win. Such a situation puts him at risk of being taken advantage of by a lawyer. He is easily incited to fight but he does obey the law when it is presented to him. When I finally found a lawyer who did research and found precedents my ex-spouse quickly settled. Not a lot of time needs to be spent on disclosure as I get his tax returns every year and I don\'t have reason to believe he is hiding money. He has no assets and used his equity from the sale of our house to travel and go out a lot. A look at our tax returns and pay stubs would quickly determine need. The guidelines will determine amount. I would make the applications myself but I have no time with caring for my children and working. He has very little to do with them and I am raising them by myself. Our original agreement had provision for section 7s related to the children\'s lessons but not for childcare as I was not working at the time. It has been difficult to get him to pay his share of childcare and he has generally been underpaying it. I also need him to contribute more money to pay for tutuoring for our daughter who has a learning disability. This was not in the origianl agreement as she had not started school. There may also be a case for back pay for both child support and spousal support. The income he reported when we signed the agreement was about $10,000 less than the income that he reported on his tax return for that year. This is the figure we based the support on so I may have been underpaid support all along. Since signing the agreement his income has steadily increased and I estimate he earns about $40,000 more than under the original agreement. He has twice voluntarily increased his child support payments when I found out what he was earning. It was less than I believed he should pay but I didn\'t want to go to court. I don\'t know what he makes now but as he received a big promotion in the summer there will be another raise. He says the raise hasn\'t gone through HR yet but he admits there is one coming and it will be retroactive to last summer. He won\'t tell me the amount. I am thinking it might be better to delay the review until his raise is confirmed, which may take a few more months and is dependant on him telling me. Eventually I will find out what he is getting paid from the taxman. I would like this settled in a timely, low-cost fashion. I am willing to wait until I can confirm what he is getting paid without chasing him for disclosure (took forever and cost way too much last time) I was fearful that he would stop paying when our review date came up but I think I have convinced him that he could get in trouble for doing that. I would like to know I can get this wrapped up because I am finding this a stressful distraction from my job and from caring for my family. I need to concentrate on my job because I hope to be able to develop it into full-time well paying work as my children get older and so that I can stop going to court for support. It\'s also such a bad economy and my job is not secure. I also am looking at ways to start my own business as that is what I did before I had children and worked full-time. I really need to concentrate on my work and family and don\'t want to be dragged down by this. Any takers?