Can I sign a lein against my house to pay for my legal fees?

[pab007]

My wife filed for divorce and is claiming that she can't afford her legal fees...and that I'm the sole reason that she's incurring them. It appears as if she's going to drag this out and make it as expensive as possible. I gave her exclusive possession of the house during the proceedings, while not losing my equity share in the property.

My question is, can I sign a lein to my lawyer so that he can foreclose on the house to pay the mountain of legal fees if they indeed are forced on me?

Thank you in advance,

 

[dee_dub]

Whether you can go in hock to your lawyer for your legal fees and secure it with your interest in the house, and whether your lawyer will be able to foreclose on your wife, are two different things.

Your current mortgage might have a term forbidding subsequent encumbrances. If not, and if your lawyer is willing to take a mortgage in your share of the house as security, then sure, go for it.

If the two of you are to the point of having to put liens on the house to pay the lawyers, you might want to reconsider your strategies of litigating this. The lawyer's fees will eat up whatever either of you expect to gain by fighting this out. Your wife, if she can be reasonable, might see that dragging this out is cutting off her nose to spite her face. You might both be better off going to mediation or simply splitting the house.

 

[pab007]

...thanks

Good info, thanks dee dub.

I'll look into the verbiage in my mortgage regarding forbidding subsequent encumbrances. I guess the point of this is to not actually do it, but to make my blood-thirsty soon-to-be-ex aware of the concept, and the fact that she'd indeed be cutting off her nose to spite her face.

Here's to hoping it works.