You should qualify for free legal assistance at a legal aid office, or through a law school clinic. I work part time with a legal aid office that also supports a law school clinic for divorces and court orders of protection.

Call your college/university student services and ask for a referral to legal aid for a divorce, or look up legal aid for your area on the net, or if you are at a university with a law school, contact the law school (or look on the net) and see if they have clinics that handle divorce cases. Or PM me and I will hook you up.

Also, in some states, private attorneys have the ability to get their legal fees from the marital settlement and may take clients who do not have access to funds.

I am not saying that it's a bad idea to seek a private attorney through pawning your stuff, but you are the type of client that should qualify for free legal assistance, and I would say from my direct experience that it is quality lawyering, even if you don't pay for it.