I need to cover myself but not sure of the next step

[Jolene80]

DH left 5 months ago, we own a business together (not very profitable at the mo, but enough to keep us going) 2 DC together, he has moved out of our council house, and I can manage the bills with what I get paid from the business.
We were going to try mediation to sort out maintenance, but didn't as both trying to be amicable and I have enough at the moment to pay my bills.
The issue is that I was snooping and looked through his messages to the woman he won't admit he left us for and discovered they are pretty much trying for a baby already. He says that she probably can't get pregnant as she has problems that area. This is typical him, burying his head in the sand but I can't let my children suffer because of his stupidity and a baby crazy girlfriend.
What is my next step, if I go to mediation now they may look at our finances and give me a very low payment as he earns next to nothing at the moment, or do I leave it for now and tackle it later.
I'm trying not to be a fool where he is concerned so need some advice.

[ClaireRalph]

maintenance for your children will be done through the CSA calculator - and be a set percentage of his earnings, so will automatically go up if the business improves. This will depend on how often your ex H has the kids overnight etc.

In terms of the assets of the marriage, the business is probably the main one, and will be split depending on need and resources of each spouse, with a priority given to meeting the needs of the kids first.

He should be paying you maintenance for the kids now that the marriage has ended (just because you can manage right now it isn't ok for him to get out of paying...), but you may chose to hold off filing for divorce until the business is worth more because courts favour 'clean break' agreements when the settlement is done once and for all.

You could really do with some independent legal advice, especially given that you have the joint business.

length of marriage, age of kids and your respective ages will all be considered, but try to keep the lines of communication open to resolve as much as you can between you both, especially if your ability to foot large legal bills is limited....

Its probably better for the divorce to happen before baby crazy girlfriend does manage to conceive tho...
Sounds like a knobhead who you are better off without!
Good luck xx