Wisconsin Divorce laws. Property and main savings account are in his name only. Am I screwed?

Question

We've been married 17 years. After birth of 1st child (15 years ago) I quit work to be a stay at home Mom. At the time he had a very good paying job. Throughout the years we acquired rental properties, land, etc. but it was ALL just in his name. Almost 3 years ago he was fired from his job (after negotiations they decided to let him "retire") and has no intent of looking for work. Since then I have been working full time plus doing all the Mom duties. I only make 1/3 of what he was making. There are many other problems. In addition he's an alcoholic. I want to get out of this mess, but what will happen to everything? As I mentioned there is a home, land, rental properties, checking and savings account as well as his pension. Again, everything is in his name only. The only thing with my name on it is a JOINT checking account that I opened when I started working almost 3 years ago. I can see now that I was really stupid in letting this happen. Anyone know the law in WI?

Answer 1

Wisconsin is a marital property state. You're entitled to 1/2 the martial assets. Get those account numbers etc to your attorney prior to filing the paperwork for divorce. If he hasn't hidden some assets from you already--he will try. Here's a link to the WI Bar Q&A on marital property.

http://www.legalexplorer.com/legal/legal...

more links:

http://wsll.state.wi.us/topic/familylaw/...

Also with a 15 year old child you should check the child support guidelines.

http://www.dwd.state.wi.us/bcs/...