W can't break EA - not sure how to handle it

[25yearsmlc]

Talk to a L. You will look weird in the court's eyes if you empty the account. At one point, my L suggested I take half the joint account money and put it somewhere that h could not touch (in his MLC he would have "invested" wherever his heroes told him to b/c of the gazillion dollars "we" would make, etc and he was totally alien and I thank God I filed for a sep b/c it saved our home...but I did take enough money out, IN CASE he went overboard...) but you are legally entitled to half of it "unencumbered" and she could use the same argument....it is a tough call b/c no one HERE wants her to get the money b/c no one here wants her to leave.

But I think you'll have a tough time saying no and "enforcing it' without doing something that risks looking really controlling and odd in the court's eyes. Do you understand what I'm saying?

IF and I repeat, IF, you do allow her the half she is legally entitled to (in most states at least) then I would definitely document that so IF the time comes to divide assets more, her half of THIS is counted against the total.

But honestly I don't know what your legal argument is that prevents her from accessing money to which she has the legal right.

It's a very tough balancing act-- ie, Not enabling her, not wanting to support this type of destructive action, balanced against looking bad in the court's eyes OR in her eyes at this point...and knowing she does have the legal right AND knowing that if you put the money somewhere she cannot reach it, and you take more than half, you'll be doing something that smells really bad to a court notwithstanding your pro-M views....I mean, I get where you are coming from, but I'm detaching as objectively as possible and giving you some legal thoughts, (not to be construed as legal advice. YES I'm a L, but no I am not giving interstate advice or formal counsel to anyone here....yes that IS a disclaimer...)

(SIGH)
sorry this isn't making you feel very good, I'm sure.
j-