I haven’t posted in a while, I have been busy trying to get things done legally. I have a preliminary hearing on the 13th for support (child and spousal), custody, and visitation. I am very mad and feeling hopeless right now. When my husband left me he left me with no money, a baby, and bills that are all in my name. I do not have a job and I have been looking for one but I have had no luck. My husband is not taking care of the bills and as of right now I do not know if my daughter and I have health insurance or if it was cancelled due to nonpayment. All of the bills are behind and my credit is going bad.<BR>I went to legal aid to get a lawyer and they told me I do not qualify. I HAVE NO MONEY! They told me that because I do not have a job and I am not receiving money form my husband they have to qualify me based on everyone living in this house’s income. They count my father, my brother, and my future sister-in-law. I think it totals up to be about 90,00. My parents cannot afford to get me an attorney, nor do I feel they should be obligated to. The same thing goes for my brother and my sil. My parents have five children and six grandchildren and they help every single one of us out because of this they are actually quite poor. If my parents weren’t here right now I would be on the streets with my baby, I got lucky that my father was stationed here and that I had some place to go when my husband left me. The legal aid office just told me “too bad”. I think this is completely unfair. The only pro bono lawyers in the state of Virginia are through the legal aid office, that is the only way you can retain one. What makes matter worse is that my husband has a great lawyer, his father is paying for it. I hate this state, I have no chance in this state. This state is very against women, I have heard this time and time again, Women are less likely to get custody here than in other states and support is very difficult to get. I never believed this up until now, and I am having to go through it. I have no chance, I can’t represent myself against a lawyer who knows all the tricks. I have called lawyers and explained my situation to see if they could do it for me pro bono but no one is willing to help me out and the cheapest I have found is $175 an hour. I could not afford that if I worked 3 jobs, but I haven’t even found one job yet, there si no way I could find three jobs.<BR>If anyone has been in this situation can you please give me advice? Thank You.<P>Courtney<BR>
