Divorce Disclosures
Divorce court requires both spouses to make full financial disclosures. This includes disclosing all real property, personal property, accounts, business interests, retirement accounts and other forms of property that you own jointly and separately. If you have a high net worth, the disclosures may be extensive. In many cases, one spouse will have a higher level of knowledge regarding finances than the other, so it can be tempting to hide assets or money that the other spouse doesn’t even know exists.
If you believe your spouse is not making an honest financial disclosure in your divorce, our knowledgeable Florida divorce lawyers use a variety of discovery tools to expose hidden property, including:
- Document requests. Florida courts allow you to demand that your spouse produce a variety of financial records. In fact, we can create a list of documents that we want to review and your spouse must typically comply with the request within a relatively short amount of time. If your spouse refuses to comply with the document request, we can file a motion to compel. If the court determines your spouse must comply, an order will be entered forcing her to disclose the information.
- Depositions. We can depose your spouse or other witnesses under oath and in front of a court reporter. This allows us to ask detailed questions regarding assets and money that you suspect are being hidden. Our experienced lawyers know how to expose lies or inconsistencies. It is common for a deposition to provide the information needed to perform a more detailed search for assets.
- Interrogatories. We can send probing, written questions for your spouse to answer. She usually has 30 days to respond.
- Requests for admission. We can send a list of statements that your spouse must either admit or deny. This can be important if your spouse denies a fact that is later proven because it may make her liable to pay a certain portion of your attorney’s fees.
- Subpoenas. We can subpoena documents from various other parties such as an employer, financial institution, businesses or medical providers. A subpoena is a court order to provide the requested documents and the party typically must comply with it.
The best weapon you have in your divorce case is your attorney. Let us help ensure that you discover all of the assets and property that you may be entitled to in your divorce. Contact the Men’s Divorce Law Firm to schedule a consultation with a caring professional, and aggressive advocate for men’s rights in divorce, child timesharing (custody), and paternity matters.