Q: Is anyone able to answer please?
My husband filed a divorce in October 2023. In December, I opened a PFA case against him. I have been granted 3-year protection to stay in our home, which is supposed to be owned by my husband after the divorce. However, his lawyer is pushing me for a divorce with unacceptable financial terms. Will I lose the right to stay in the house for 3 years after the divorce? What is the best option for me in this situation? Thank you in advance. I appreciate your help and will spread the word about your commitment to help.
A:
There is not enough information here to answer this question. Pennsylvania is an awful state to go to court in and especially in the case of family court, outcomes are never based on operative facts. Pennsylvania courts operate on assumptions and policies, and decisions precede the making of records. Records will be crafted to match the up-front, assumption-based order.
Here, we do not know if the husband is moneyed and connected to the political local apparatus. He may have deliberately misbehaved to cause the asker to file for a PFA which the moneyed husband could later say was fraudulent and manipulative. This would be a use of the PFA as a sword rather than a shield. Being moneyed in Pennsylvania means everything. The moneyed husband can retain the correct lawyer who is connected to the correct local judiciary. He can retain psychologists to make the wife out to be lunatic. He can hire counselors who can convince children to behave any way the husband wants them to behave to always maintain a litigation edge.
As for the home, if it is separate property meaning it belonged to the husband before the marriage, then in all likelihood, the court would restore the husband to possession and order the asker out. However, we do not know of what machinations the moneyed husband may pull on the asker. We read about an unfair master settlement agreement being thrust upon the asker. This may be a prelude to future disasters throughout the divorce action.
We do not know whether there are children, pensions, and other assets. Money buys justice in Pennsylvania, and the courts are always isolate d from reality. A lawyer is crucial to a defense in any situation, and being penny wise now can mean to be pound foolish in the future in a Pennsylvania divorce court.
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