I've been doing a great deal of reading and educating myself on family law and recently came across the "clean hands" doctrine. Here's how I believe it applies to me.
Nine years post divorce my ex has come after me for spousal support. She claims that she is unable to work more than 15 hours per week as she has to take care of our son, who is 12 and has some minor special needs...and I mean minor. However I spent many years trying to gain some sort of access to our child but this has been a very real case of parental alienation and the level of extreme hostility from my ex pretty much thwarted every single attempt t made to have a relationship with our child. She did a real number on our son and simply interfered with every single attempt I made to have him in my life and to be a father to him.
My position is that she should not be awarded any spousal support based on her claims that she is unable to work and has to be home with our child as she put herself in the position of unilaterally parenting by virtue of the fact that she is the reason why I don't have a relationship with our child. She brought on the hardship of single parenting with her actions and years of sabotaging our relationship. From day one of our separation I tried to see my child and fought for 50/50 custody but finally had to walk away after years of fighting for that right. She has damaged our child so much that I believe it would be virtually impossible to repair that relationship.
If ex had not done what she's done, she would have the ability to work full-time and we would share the parenting responsibilities. So why should I now have to support her financially when she put herself in the position she is currently in? Does she not have "unclean hands?"
She brought her own hardship on and is now seeking remedy from the court at my cost. Something is wrong with that.
Nine years post divorce my ex has come after me for spousal support. She claims that she is unable to work more than 15 hours per week as she has to take care of our son, who is 12 and has some minor special needs...and I mean minor. However I spent many years trying to gain some sort of access to our child but this has been a very real case of parental alienation and the level of extreme hostility from my ex pretty much thwarted every single attempt t made to have a relationship with our child. She did a real number on our son and simply interfered with every single attempt I made to have him in my life and to be a father to him.
My position is that she should not be awarded any spousal support based on her claims that she is unable to work and has to be home with our child as she put herself in the position of unilaterally parenting by virtue of the fact that she is the reason why I don't have a relationship with our child. She brought on the hardship of single parenting with her actions and years of sabotaging our relationship. From day one of our separation I tried to see my child and fought for 50/50 custody but finally had to walk away after years of fighting for that right. She has damaged our child so much that I believe it would be virtually impossible to repair that relationship.
If ex had not done what she's done, she would have the ability to work full-time and we would share the parenting responsibilities. So why should I now have to support her financially when she put herself in the position she is currently in? Does she not have "unclean hands?"
She brought her own hardship on and is now seeking remedy from the court at my cost. Something is wrong with that.
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