One of the first things that happens after you or your spouse files for divorce is that you exchange financial information. This is because you will need to equitably divide the marital assets and determine your respective incomes to award spousal and child support to the lower-earning spouse. You are both obligated to provide documentation, but what happens if your spouse holds back? How can you get those financial records?
What Financial Records Do You Have a Right to Obtain?
Both sides must provide records related to their marriage, including bank, retirement and investment account statements, mortgage and loan documents, credit card statements, insurance title certificates, tax returns, employment and business records and other relevant documents. Typically, you start with information for the last 3 years, but it could be longer if the documents provided indicate fraud, misappropriation or a waste of marital assets.
How Can You Get Your Spouse to Provide Financial Records?
If your spouse is withholding information, there are several steps you can take. These 4 options are listed in order of simplest and least expensive to most complex and costly.
- Deficiency letter. Your attorney sends a letter requesting that the missing documents be produced.
- Subpoena. A third party who has the records is served with a subpoena to deliver the records to you.
- Motion to Compel. You request that the court order your spouse to produce the information.Motion to Preclude. You ask the court for an order limiting your spouse’s ability to make arguments that relate to the withheld documents.
- Motion to Preclude. You ask the court for an order limiting your spouse’s ability to make arguments that relate to the withheld documents.
Each of these will be discussed in more detail in future posts. The key point, however, is that your attorney should start with the first one on this list and go to the next step only if that effort fails. This ensures you won’t unnecessarily incur legal fees and delay your case by pursuing expensive options before you’ve exhausted the less costly ones.
If you are considering divorce, contact us to discuss how we can protect your rights and help you achieve a positive outcome.
