827Aug

My situation is quite complicated since a business was also jointly owned. My estranged husband had been taking unequal distributions (embezzling) from the business beginning in 2006. Also, he hid invoices from me and major vendors did not get paid. Although my estranged husband moved out of the house in 2008, I did not file for divorce until 2009. When the divorce papers were issued there was a clause in them clearly stating that all assets could not be touched (except in the ordinary course of doing business). Of course, my estranged husband completed ignored that clause.

By September 2009 our business was on it's last leg because my estranged husband had basically "gutted" it. During the last week of that month, I became serious ill, went into a coma, and did not get out of the hospital until the end of October. Obliviously my husband didn't expect me to ever get out of the hospital. He really took a lot of money from the two business accounts and also hit one of the other joint accounts hard. It was awful!

After that my attorney told me to basically close all joint accounts. I was to document all money he took while I was in the hospital. If the amounts in the joint accounts were less than or equal to the amounts he took, I could keep it. The amounts I took were no where even close to what he took. It was not an issue.

I really don't blame you for protecting yourself. I would keep very detail records--like when she overdraft the account. Also, make sure you close all joint credit cards. That was also a big part of why my attorney told me to close all joint accounts. My estranged husband bounces most checks he writes and keeps a maximum on several credit cards. It wasn't hard to prove his irresponsibility and justify closing ALL accounts.