Divorce Support Forums: Is this able to be appealed in any way?

This is a long one, and I'm probably out of luck, but I figured I'd ask:

My ex-wife filed for divorce in September 2006. It was an uncontested divorce where she would receive the house and most of the marital property. I did not have any money and had no legal representation (which turned out to be a serious problem).

There was a student loan in her name taken out during the marriage to pay for several of my debts and my vehicle. I agreed that I should pay her this in full.

Now, the interest rate on that loan is, at the most, 4.1%. She told me this in an e-mail a few days after we decided to divorce. Additionally, the lending institution where the loan resides lowers the interest rate by .25% - .5% for every 12 months of timely payments she makes. The balance of the loan was somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000

Here's the problem:

The promissory note that is supposed to reimburse her for this loan is set at an interest rate that is higher than the rate on the student loan that I am supposed to reimburse. Furthermore, I am supposed to be making payments that are 3 or 4 times higher than her required monthly payment.

Doing the math, it means that she is first profiting on the settlement via the excessive interest rate on the note, and she is then profiting again by putting my excess payments into something simple like a bank certificate of deposit. I know this is likely because I calmly attempted to contact her to see if we could modify this, and of course she said "no".

At the time the divorce proceedings began and for two months after they finalized, I was unemployed. She is a veterinarian. Her monthly bills are no more than my own, and she makes 4 times my current income.

With my monthly bills to pay for gas to hold a job, medical bills, food, car insurance, etc. - the bills one would simply pay to make a living and live somewhere besides on the street - I come out with much more in expenses than I do income. I could work 120 hours in a two-week span at my current job, and the base and overtime pay would not approach the money I need. This is if I lived in a cheap $300 apartment.

At the time of the settlement, I was under severe emotonal distress (read: depression) and, about two weeks after the divorce finalized, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I had to enroll in a rehab program, be put on medication, seek professional counseling - etc. My doctor told me at that time that making major financial decisions, etc. was a bad idea because of the untreated condition. He said the normal processes an individual would use to rationalize such conditions are substantially diminished.

So to make a long story short:

It appears the note was set in such a manner as to pay her $30,000 over 5 years at 5% interest for a loan that has a balance of $30,000 amortized over 10 years at some interest rate that is lower than what is on the promissory note in the settlement. The promissory note reads that it is for "payments of debt owed" and the divorce paperwork states the note is for "payment of debts incurred from student loan".

Neither is a factual statement, but I don't really know that I have any legal recourse. I know that it's morally wrong for her to do this, but that doesn't mean there's legal recourse.

It would seem to me that the point is to repay her, not fund her retirement or next vehicle purchase or whatever it is she plans to do with the excess earnings.

It wouldn't be as big of a problem, if it weren't for the fact that I simply cannot afford to live and have not been able to do so since the divorce. I have had 3 major medical events since the divorce, 2 required emergency room visits, and one required an in-patient stay at the hospital. I could afford none of the insurance copays.

I wish I hadn't done this uncontested, because it would have been so easy to argue against with a judge. Unfortunately, at the time, I didn't have all my marbles about me, so I wasn't even capable of doing the necessary math to verify that something was wrong in the settlement, and she was trying to tell me that if I didn't hurry up and sign, her lawyer was going to charge her more money (I, for some reason, agreed to pay her lawyer fees) and the court was going to make her lawyer refile the case.

At this point, it seems that her lawyer probably thought I was going to contest the case because the settlement was so ludicrous.

Do I have any legal recourse? Despite being uncontested, was the judge still required to review the contents of the case to verify everything was legitimate? Does a promissory note stemming from divorce proceedings fall under any contract or usury laws?

I'd love to go to an experienced lawyer about this, but it's not possible, financially.

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