Exploring The Legal Process

One of the worst things you can do during a divorce is to withhold financial information from your spouse. The court expects full financial disclosure from both parties to aid in the financial determinations related to the divorce, such as child support, alimony, and asset division. Here are some of the penalties you may face if you are caught withholding financial information:

Verbal Admonishment

If you are lucky, the judge may let you off with nothing other than a verbal admonishment. This is likely to be the case if the information you withheld wasn't material to the case or only affected the hearing in a minor way. However, you will need to walk a tightrope henceforth because the judge may not be that easy on you if they find you with another infraction.

Financial Penalty

In some cases, your lie may affect you financially if the judge decides to reduce your share of the divorce settlement and increase your spouse's with a similar margin. This is likely to be the case if the lie was a serious one that would have cost your spouse serious money (think thousands of dollars). It might also be the case if your spouse has spent considerable money to unearth your lie.

Asset Redistribution

Don't think that you are lucky if you manage to hide assets until the divorce is finalized. If your former spouse unearths your deception, they can still go to court and get the case reopened. If your spouse's cry is justified, the judge may redistribute the assets so that your former partner gets their fair share (the share they would have received sans your deception). You can imagine how devastating that would be to your financial status if you had "wasted" the assets you withheld from your former spouse and have to dig into your real share for the redistribution.

Criminal Charges

In extremely serious cases, you may even face criminal charges for your deception. Criminal charges are likely if the judge determines that your deception was intentional and seriously affected the result of the divorce. You may be punished with a monetary fine, jail time or both if you are convicted of the criminal charge.

Therefore, it's in your best interest to produce all the required information as required by the court; the legal and financial ramifications are just not worth it. Work with a lawyer from a place like A Affordable Attorney Gerling Law Group to eliminate the risk of accidentally forgetting to produce a crucial document.