Can I Sue My Ex Husband For Financial Abuse
Financial Abuse During Divorce In Texas
There is an assumption that family violence is often just physical in nature. But physical violence is often accompanied by other types of abuse such as verbal, emotional, and sexual abuse. These forms of abuse are often used by the perpetrator to enforce coercive control over the victim.
In other words, the abuser is using manipulation, intimidation, and punishment to maintain power and control in the marriage. Most victims of this type of abuse end up losing all their power. Talk to a trusted attorney to learn more about financial abuse in divorce in Texas.
Definition Of Financial Abuse
Financial Abuse Divorce Settlement
Abusers use physical violence to show the survivor that there are painful consequences for noncompliance with the abuser’s wishes. Before they get violent they often use verbal abuse to warn survivors that there will be physical violence. But abusers also use verbal abuse to exploit the survivor’s insecurities, ruin their reputation, or threaten them with financial ruin.
Any emotional or psychological abuse directed at the survivor by the abuser is meant to diminish the survivor’s self-confidence and self-esteem. But they can also use this type of abuse to make the survivor feel that they are responsible for the abuse directed at them.
Financial abuse involves any action an abuser takes that is meant to rob a survivor of their ability to acquire, use or maintain economic resources. The abuser does this so that the survivor is no longer self-sufficient or financially independent. Some of these actions include:
- Concealing financial information
- Limiting access to finances
As a result, survivors end up getting trapped in abusive relationships because they cannot use their finances to run away from that situation. Reputable studies have shown that the majority of survivors stay in abusive marriages because of economic reasons.
How To Identify Financial Abuse
How To Prove Financial Abuse In TX
Financial abuse is not often easy to identify because it can take a subtle form. But even if the abuser is using a subtle form of financial abuse, the abuser’s behavior will become more obvious as time goes by. Financial abuse can take the following forms:
- The abuser demands that the survivor resign from their job
- Abuser forces the survivor not to get professional training, get into college, or finish their education
- Frustrating every effort, the survivor makes to obtain or maintain employment
- Make sure the survivor has no access to financial information
- Forcing the survivor to deposit their paycheck in the abuser’s bank account and denying the survivor access to that account
- Only giving the survivor specific amounts of money when they ask for money and demanding that they produce receipts that show how they used the money
- Using the survivor’s credit card to make careless purchases that put the survivor in debt
- Refusing to pay for expenses necessary for the survival of the survivor and the children
- Not allowing the survivor to pay any house bills
- Lying that the survivor overspends the money given to them
- Monitoring the online spending of the survivor
- Making sure that the survivor cannot find marital assets
This kind of abuse can lead the judge to issue orders during the divorce process that give the survivor access to funds to pay their lawyer and to live on. It may also determine the judge’s decision on other matters in the divorce.