What if I run out of money in the middle of my divorce?
Running out of money does not end your case or forfeit your position, but it does change what you should be doing this week. Several of the available remedies work best early, and the worst outcome here is silence: an unrepresented spouse who stops responding can lose by default rather than on the merits.
Ask for these, roughly in this order
Interim support. If your spouse out-earns you, a court can order support while the case is pending rather than only at the end. This is ordinary, and it exists precisely because the lower-earning spouse otherwise cannot survive the process.
A contribution to your legal fees. In many states a court can order the better-resourced spouse to pay some or all of the other's attorney fees, on the reasoning that a case where only one side can afford representation is not a fair one. It generally has to be requested, and requested sooner rather than after the bills have accumulated.
Access to marital money. The funds in your spouse's account are frequently marital funds, not theirs. Paying legal costs from marital assets is often permissible, and where you have been cut off from accounts entirely, a court can address that too.
A fee waiver for court costs, based on income. Routine, and separate from anything to do with lawyers. It is not entirely string-free: the court can revisit the waiver if your finances improve, and if you are ever ordered to pay the fees back, the deadline to ask for a hearing about it can be as short as 30 days from the day you are served with that order.
Limited-scope help. Rather than full representation you can hire an attorney for one defined piece: reviewing an agreement, preparing one motion, coaching you before a hearing. What a divorce costs and what to do when the number is out of reach lists the rest of the ladder, including legal aid and law school clinics.
Talk to your attorney before the money runs out
The conversation people avoid, and the one that helps most.
Attorneys deal with this constantly and have options that disappear once you are already behind: a payment plan, a narrowed scope, holding off on discovery that is not essential, or an orderly handover if they genuinely cannot continue. What they cannot do is help with a problem they learn about after they have withdrawn.
If they do withdraw, ask for your complete file and a written accounting of the retainer. Unused funds are generally returnable, and getting the balance back has its own process.
If you end up representing yourself
It is survivable, and thousands of people do it. Three things matter most.
The deadlines do not move. They are the same whether or not you have a lawyer, and missing one is how self-represented people actually lose. If a default has already gone against you, do not treat it as final: courts can set one aside, and the window depends on your state and on why you missed it, so ask this week rather than assuming the chance is gone.
Court self-help centers are free and not means-tested, where your court has one. They serve people without a lawyer, in that court's own cases. They are also neutral rather than yours: nothing you tell them is confidential, and they will help your spouse too, so bring them procedure questions rather than strategy. They cannot give legal advice, but they can tell you which form, which deadline, and how to file, which is most of what you need. It is the most underused resource in this entire process.
Get one review before you sign anything. Even at your tightest, one hour to have a proposed settlement read by an attorney is the cheapest insurance available. A document drafted by your spouse's lawyer was written to protect your spouse, which is their job and exactly why the review exists.
The thing worth remembering
Cases where both sides run low on money settle more often than they go to trial. Being short of funds is a bad position to negotiate from, and it is not the same as having a bad case.
Whether interim support and fee contributions are available, and on what standard, varies by state. If money is about to run out, raise it with your attorney or your court's self-help center now, because the remedies above are easier to obtain before the arrears than after.