husband lied about finances.What are my legal rights?

I have just come to find out that my husband has not been paying most of our bills and lying to his family about me. His mother has been paying most of our bills. His family was under the impression, no thanks to him, that I was spending friviously and not helping out with our finances. I pay my part of the bills and the other bills he wass supposed to be paying and as I stated its been his mother paying and lending him money. This was all a shock to me and his family because now that it has come to light about my husband, we have no clue as to why  or where his money is going. We do not share accounts with the bank. So I do not know anything regarding his money. I want to know because of the deception of the money and he lying to his family that I cant pay bills, when in fact I have been and can prove where my money is going unlike him, if I have rights to protect myself from his mother taking legal action against me when she should just be taking it against my husband. Also, to protect my character against the things my husband is saying falsley about me to his family. 

Domestic disputes rarely have nice legal answers.

You probably need to vigoursly address separate accounts and liabilities and separate tax returns as well and nevr pay a dime of his bills.

I am really sorry.

This is a difficult time.

But why is his mother taking legal action?  I'm not really understanding..  

This is just my personal opinion, for whatever it is worth, but if you are divorcing, it generally comes down to just a couple of things.  Money and children.  If you have no children, that really simplifies it all.  Now it's all about cash.

Hire a good divorce lawyer.  Let him or her walk you through this.  All any of us here can do is just give you some general advise.  You need someone by your side that knows exactly your situation.  

as an aside, I don't know how your husband pays the bills, but you really should probably get yourself up to speed on what they are and how much.  I know, my wife has no idea about ours, but I do them all online, and it's really simple to see it if you know how.

Good luck!

Mom may be 99.8% hot air--but I think it safer to say or do NOTHING re her.

No shes not hot air, thank you. she is within her legal right to sue my husband for money owed. he signed a contract and has already put up personal property of his own for colleteral to his mother. I knew nothing of this til just a week ago. She was under the impression I was standing idley by while I was our financial ship sank so to speak until I informed her and his family otherwise that he is lying about finances, borrowing money when he shouldnt be, and lying about me. Ive proven my innocence & now  she sees the truth. This doesnt mean however regarding me being porotected, That is what I am asking. We all have been decieved by my husband (myself & his parents) and my name has been drug throught the mud so to speak because of him. Grant it his parents now know the truth but that does not protect me however.

she isnt taking legal action as far as I know but she could. She mentioned she felt she should get our income tax return. I feel he should give his portion but not me because I had no idea this was going on. I feel really sorry for her & I want her to be paid back but I will never be able to do it because it is so much money. Im very angry with my husband and it has caused problems in both households. Im actually on her side and told her NEver to give him money again, however Im the daughter-in-law and need to protect myself from this situation.

She is fully entitled to put a major squeeze on son to pay his debts to her.

As to you--there is no privity of contract-and she is hot air.

One major problem may be if he pays off Mom ahead of meeting his marital obligations or joint debt within the marriage YOU get stuck with his obligations in part because Mom is smarter than you were in past.

Now that you are fully awake you need to act!.

so do you intend on filing for divorce? Mom is totally within her legal right to sue your hubby. I think you need to talk to her and let her know what is being said and claimed about you is false and you have been paying your share of the bills. Does he work at all? If whatever reason money is short and he cannot pay it is sort of up to you to cover it..did your husband come to you saying he had no money and needed help with bills? The money has to come from somewhere.

yes he does work ALOT.... 2 jobs in the summer in fact and still cant make ends meet forsome unknown reason. This is what ourfamily cannot figure out. Why is it sort of up to me to pay for bills when he comes up short?? I pay all the utilities and main grocoeries!! 

well as far as his personal debt I am not responsible for ie: credit cards personal loans,etc. This I know.  But we share nothing as far as mortagae, bank acct., etc. However,  when he tells his family I bounce checks & cannot afford the utilities (which I pay for all of them by-the-way) This is all untrue and a way to get $ from mom. It makes me look bad and puts me at risk of being sued and her coming after my assets because I am his wife because he cant pay her back. Im next int he line of fire so to speak and Im worried she can sue me. I dont think she will but if it is an option for her and she does take it to that level I want to know my rights ahead of time so I am prepared. Technically I want to beat her to the punch because of the fiasco my husband has caused. 

Its there someplace--gambling,drinking,drugs, past debt collector, CC's , loose women, expensive habits, ---something---

Yours is an equitable distribution state, meaning a court can decide who "deserves" the assets.  I assume the debts are figured the same way.  That means it is possible a court would assign him his mother's debt.

Regarding his lack of funds though he works alot...something else must be going on.  Drugs, addictions, gambling, other women?  The money must be going somewhere.  That info would probably help in a divorce.

We share nothing everything is seperate. Filing seperate taxes will pentalize us correct??

Filing separate taxes may or may not cost a bit more--about 20 minutes to run both sets thru any low cost software like turbo tax, then decide .

But if hubby has been fibbing to IRS or doesn't pay his share of the tax bill and you file jointly the IRS wants full balance out of your hide as well as your signature binds you to the common story and liability......

This has nothing to do with owing taxes...but thank you anyway.

What my question pertains to is that I want to file seperately and be sure to recievce my fair share of what I ve worked hard for and not have it taken away from me because of his debts I have nothing to do with. Also, I want to know if we will be penalized for filing seperately bec ause we are married