[aschmiedt]

Am a recently divorced (Oct 07) 48 yr old mother of one 15 yr old teen and was married for 19 yrs. I was a model and actress doing commercials and some t.v. A few years ago I was injured in a car accident and because there was a lawsuit pending and I was a bit injured I was not able to go to a gym to work out and stay in shape. Needless to say, I gained some weight and missed out on lots of work. During this lack of employment time, my husband and I began to have marital problems , as well as debt started to climb. This was in late 2005. Our marriage continued to decline and eventually he moved out and then subsequent divorce in 2007. I fought to earn enough money taking on several parttime gigs to cover the necessary expenses for my daughter and I, but no longer able to travel and previous model and acting jobs out of state that allowed me to earn a substantially more while being the only parent available to govern the child. My ex barely covered the mortgage and other expenses and out debt grew. Nevertheless, once I first found myself faced with a major decline in work I ceased to use all of the credit cards. They were used primarily when traveling out of state work expenses. We finally sold our home in May 2007 and I planned to move and start a new life with my daughter and after re-educating myself to enter a different job market I would seek fulltime employment and begin to cover my debts. I have a degree in Psychology and extensive past experience working with our youth and in P.R. So, I know I will eventually find myself a decent job. On June 5th 2007, my daughter and I were pedestrians crossing the street and were struck by a car turning left from a one way street. My daughter suffered a cervical sprain, whiule I suffered a broken ankle, torn mcl, acl, and some miniscus damage as well as a fractured elbow , and bruises from when my head hit the windshield before I fell back down onto the street. We were rushed to the hospital, and later that night discharged. I spent the next several month in a wheel chair and on crutched after my elbow healed to allow my injures to get better. Then in Oct. when my elbow and ankle were now healed I had surgury on my knee and began again in bed and soon afetr with my recovery and physical therapy. Unfortunately, the driver didn't have bodily injury and my pip, and health insurance covered as much as possible of the bills , but I still have some $27/8,000 of medical debt now. In January, I attempted to try and begin earning some money while being the sole caretaker and driver for my teen daughter. Her father/my ex-husband was to begin paying alimony and child support , but each month for one reason or another trickled in throughout the month with the payments. As the months progressed , he became more and more irregular about making payments and I had to contact him every month and ask when and how much was coming. My daughters schedule for her volleyball club practices varied from 5 to 7p.m. 6 to 8 p.m. or 7:30-9:30 p.m. Fortunately her fees were paid for by a family friend as a gift, but the transport to these practices as well as the tournaments throughout the state of Florida were to be shared by both parents. Needless to say, only I owned up to doing the transporting as well as to all the 3 and 4 day weekend tournaments. I tried to share rooms, car pool, and do anything that would help cover this cost I had not intended to take on alone. My ex always came up with some excuse why he was unavailable. The peior years was because his jeep was falling apart. But after the divorce he got a 2008 BMW lease and so he created other reasons to never help. Consequently I forged on, and worked with caterers oin weekends she didn't have tournaments, and on weeknight s that would allow me home early enough to keep her safe. She and I decided that at the close of the season, she would not be able to continue this activity the following year because I couldn't afford it and her father was irresponsible. During the same year, my daughter was part of her schools Novice debate team and eccelled to such great heights that she and her partner won 4 National Debate Tournaments and were Titled as the #1 Novice Debaters in the Nation. This was a great achievement, but the Debate travel cost put a toll pn my expenses since her father also fell short with helping to cover the 75% of these costs as stipulated in the divorce decree. Little by little , my tiny savings was dwindling and attempted to pay off a 1 debt, pay down significantly another, and almost eliminate another while having to deal with a very difficult school schedule. After a while I decided it best not to begin attempting to pay on any of the other debts until I could get fulltime employment after the school year ended and once I was also able to begin garnishing my exspouses wages. I had to be sure tobe able to hold onto enough cash to keep my daughter and I with a roof over our heads. So, needless to say, I am still looking into how to possible sue the driver of the car that hit us although many ;lawyers have told me that there is no way to . I also revamped my resume and began studying and learning various office software practices to update my skills and began sending out my resume hoping that finally after going through all the physical and emotional trauma of the prior year, I could focus on getting gainfully employed and begin to have some control over my finances and debts. I decided that my daughter would not be able to do any afterschool activities since I couldn't count on her dad for support and so I too woiuldn't be limited with available work hours as I had been the year before. I began to work out to lose the weight gained from all of the trauma from the injuries and after surgery, and looked forward to finally getting a new beginning. School ended as well as club volleyball in June and soon my daughter was off to a Mandatory Debate Camp for school. I studied and sent out resumes while contacting old references to be prepared for interviews. I already have an appointment to start proceeding to garnish my exspouses wages . In the end, I spent some almost $11,000 cover expenses for school and Club volleyball that were stipulated to be split (75/25). My ex is V.P. Of Production for an Advertising Firm and not only did he not pay child support and alimony on a regular basis, he declined to cover the cost when the bills came from the school. He now owes me this money and continues to try and find ways to get around it, but I can no longer avoid paying my debts and continue to have to use this tiny bit of money I have left to take care of my daughter and I. I had some money saved from the sale of the house to get myself restarted and begin working and covering debt, when the accident occurred and set be back badly, and then the cost and time needed to handle my daughters expenses with lack of help, also caused me to have to keep digging into those rapidly diminishing savings. I was just praying to get through the rest of the school year and move on. Well, in the summer , all the caterers nearly shut down until September. So, that eliminated that one source of work I had. I finally was able to locate another caterer who could use my services once in a while. Meanwhilke I focused all my energies on Job searching!Then a few days ago, I found out I was being served for a credit card debt! I have been through so much and although I have a meeting with my lawyer on Monday about garnishing my exspouses wages, I will also inform him about the now pending lawsuit. Essentially I have only enough money left to cover a few months rent without counting the child support and alimony. I have applied for some very good jobs, but will have to take anything I can gert in the meantime to keep us a float. I do believe if I have been able to get this far and overcome all of the past traumas I will overcome this too. BUT, I don't really see how Ai can even begin to do a repayment plan until I am at least employed and able to secure the garnishing of my exspouses wages. I have a 2004 car that is almost paid off, but I decided a while ago not to just in car my ex fell short on his responsibilities, which he did. So, essentially, I don't know what to do?? I can apply for unemployment because I do still receive a few dollars of residuals from past commercial work and my employers all paid into the unemployment system for me, but I didn't really want to say I was getting unemployment while applying for jobs. But , I can if that will help my case. I will get very very little, but it is an option in the meantime.
Signed,
Desparately seeking help!
Sorry for the long story!

[slowandeasy]

What exactly are you asking?

[ScottGem]

First its not a good idea to piggyback your question on someone else's. This can lead to confusion. You should start a new thread. So I've moved your question to its own thread.

Second, While you gave a lot of details, you don't really say what you need help with. Sometimes you have to balance giving only a few details and letting us ask questions then a long story that turns people off.

[Alty]

If you are asking for advice or help in getting money, I don't know what to tell you. Continue going after the ex for his share and start looking for work or apply for unemployment.

I wish you luck.