Sadly it looks like my brother's marriage is headed for divorce. I say sad because he and I (and supposedly his wife) are Christians and we know that God hates divorce. In my humanness though I sure feel he will be better off without her (emotionally anyway). Financially is another matter. Which is why I am looking for advice on his behalf.
They live in Washington State and he said that it is a no fault divorce state. As such, apparently she will take half of the assets regardless of the circumstances.
As we all know there are 2 sides to the story but overall this one seems quite one sided.
She has not worked for years, claiming that she has chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia and who knows what else. I believe she might be getting disability benefits but I am not sure about that.
Basically she sleeps all night and most of the day and contributes very little to the running of the house. My brother has tried to honor his wedding vows (in sickness and health etc) and take care of her but she has basically sucked the life out of him. The big blow up this week that caused him to vacate the house was that she essentially decided for them that her drunken bum of a son from a previous marriage was going to stay with them and that my brother had nothing to say about it. This son has stayed with them off and on with my brother biting his tongue and trying to be a loving and supportive husband but he had words with the disrespectful piece of crap and hurt the poor boys feelings. Among other issues the son decided (with the wife's urging) to start parking his car in the garage and my brother could just park his car in the driveway. Sadly my brother has allowed his wife to run roughshod over him for years and now it looks like she has decided (despite him bending over backwards to do right by her for years) that her drunken bum of a son (who is a grown man) is more important to her than the marriage is.
Clearly with that being the case my brother is better off without her but is there any way for him to not lose half of all he has worked for with her contributing basically nothing?
He has worked for the federal government for about 28 years and has a good retirement account and pension and also has the house paid off.
Just wondering if there are any lawyers here or other folks from WA State that have any legal type advice for him. Thanks much!
