Thankyou, Muffininthemoo.
No money for a lawyer! He now has the original family mortgage, and the rent on the flat. I offered to pay and did in fact pay a fair bit of an earlier stage in the divorce, but his ex-wife took out a divorce package and he decided he wanted just to do it all himself. The court is actually making him pay, in addition, for half the costs of his ex-wife's divorce package! He didn't ask her to sign up for it, so he's paying towards her legal costs but has no money for his own.
I would still fund the action you say, but as others have remarked, a court order wouldn't make any difference and I think his motives are to keep things low profile. In the end it's his marriage and he knows his ex best. Any ramping up would get returned in spades. She, too, has lost a husband. At the outset of their relationship, when the elder child was born, she said, 'No child of mine will ever grow up without a father' (as she did). Ironic, eh?
SNP and Greens end coalition deal
Scottish political mess. Is Devolution working?