Served with appointment for questioning

[ringettteplayer]

Hi there my stbx will not give a sworn statement of financials or provide financial statements. My lawyer served him with a date to be questioned as he was never available. So my lawyer gave him some optional dates and times but none were acceptable so my lawyer picked one.

He was also asked to bring certain statements
This letter was filed with the court.

What happens if he doesn't show up for questioning?
What happens if he doesn't provide the necessary statements?
Is my affidavidt considered more reliable then? Will I be granted what I have asked for in my application then?
I understand that the court can order him but so what? So what if the court orders him and he still doesn't produce them what is the consequence?

Our court date is January. After numerous adjournment requests.

Court is for cs/ss/custody

[Pursuinghappiness]

Its unfortunate when you're dealing with non-disclosure. Its expensive and the longer the stall, the more unlikely it becomes that you're going to be able to get to the bottom of where funds are. Believe me, I went through it and am still dealing with it. Equalization remains the pending issue in us getting to settlement.

I had deposition, multiple requests for disclosure and 4 motions. The costs of the motions were picked up by my ex. In the last motion, my lawyer asked for penalties to be paid for continued non-disclosure. I think it was a fee of 5k for every 30 days past the motion date.

That's when I finally got some resolution although my ex then sent in sketchy documentation that I'm still sorting through now. I ended up getting an agreement to directly request the documentation from the financial institution myself and my lawyer called them and had them send everything directly to her on disk. Currently we're still sorting through this material.

So my answer is to go to motion, ask the judge to appoint a mandatory deposition date and ask for costs and start asking for penalties. Then rinse and repeat if he doesn't show up again.

The good news is that I didn't have to attend any of the disclosure motions...my lawyer handled it. And I paid for none of them. The funds came directly from his retainer with his lawyers office.

The bad news is that it won't necessarily resolve the issue. If he's intent on hiding assets, its just a really tough process to get located unless you have a pretty good idea already on where things might be. There's just not a lot of remedies on this issue. I recently posted a link to a case where a woman in England took years and 10 million in legal fees to try to prove that her ex wasn't bankrupt and was worth millions/billions.

[ringettteplayer]

Thanks PH!

I do know the assets thank heavens!

The update now is
He was served with an appointment to be questioned on his affidavidt and he nor his lawyer showed up.

What happens now when we go to court?
I was already questioned and submitted 42 undertakings.
He has not submitted Any financial statements we have requested.

[Pursuinghappiness]

Yes, so now its time to file a motion. In the materials, your lawyer should state the appointment time registered for his deposition (that he didn't attend) and then you'll also attach all the requests for disclosure and resubmit the list you're asking for. In addition, you may want to talk to your lawyer about specifying penalties for non-compliance or you can just keep filing a new motion every 30-days. You'll get a cost award for these anyway.

One thing I can tell you is that non-disclosure is a tactic with some "shark" lawyers. My ex's HC, male-rights attorney literally advised him not to comply with disclosure. When he dropped the lawyer after he lost his bid for sole custody...he filed a complaint with the law society on this lawyer...then the guy suddenly forwarded every document that he had to my lawyer. It was unreal.

If your ex has this type of lawyer, I can tell you that you need to stay on the ball and keep filing motions...otherwise, you're not going to get anywhere and it gives your ex longer to play hide the salami with assets.

I didn't attend the disclosure motions because I didn't want to take any more time off of work for something my lawyer could handle but my lawyer told me that my ex got seriously spanked in court multiple times by the judges...even to the point where one judge called him a "fabricator" in the endorsement. Judges really get tired of litigants pulling this kind of crap because it just causes a ridiculous amount of lag through the system...so if you do attend the motion(s) get ready to sit back and enjoy yourself.

By the way: I should have mentioned that if there were costs associated for the deposition that he missed...like lawyer fees for your lawyer to be there, etc...make sure you ask for those too.

[arabian]

Throughout everything it is important to make a Formal Offer of Settlement. My lawyer was on the ball with this. Just a few days ago we were successful in court again. My lawyer will be going for double costs, which are allowable in Alberta Rules of Court.

[Pursuinghappiness]

Its usually hard to make an offer to settle without disclosure.

You can try if you have a good handle on what you think the assets and balances were at the valuation dates...but otherwise, you need to keep the pressure on getting discovery done.

Its embarrassing to say but I let my ex handle our savings/retirement funds and had no idea what the balances were. I was responsible for handling the household bills and joint checking accounts. At the time, it seemed like an equitable division of labour since he'd constantly brag about how he stayed on top of investing and was so great at it. I was a complete idiot and not until separation did I understand he was day-trading a lot of our joint assets. I am still trying to figure out what exactly happened and accept that I may never figure it out and will have to try to settle at my best guess.

[mememe]

Disclosure has been my major issue as well. We received some information after questioning. My lawyer wrote numerous letters, and we literally listed some of what was missed. I even gave him a list of joint assets---not to be seen on his statements for a bit. We used my figures for joint, and did our best with the NFP and created an offer. I have many rants on this site regarding his failure to provide financials.

He is still not disclosing all, and as was suggested by others, an audit might be in order.

I am hoping the "audit" may shake him up a bit and negotiate a settlement--where I don't owe him. I am sure his hidden assets will change things.

At settlement conference I was disappointed in the judge/system for a number of reasons---another one was she used his financial (where they changed a hundreds of thousands RSP into a x0,000 sum. HMMMM---my lawyer had to remind her that you can't depend on his financials.

Any documents left in the home? Mine left a little and anything I though would be useful I copied and then sent the original with his stuff with the moving company. One document was a year before we separated, but my lawyer has requested a …where did these funds go???? to his lawyer

[ringettteplayer]

He has been court ordered to produce all financials by a certain date.

I don't know what the penalty is for non compliance.

Anyone have that experience?

[arabian]

PH was quite correct in getting her order to state a financial consequence for non-compliance. Without a clause like that in there you very well may not get financial disclosure.

It has been my experience that, unless consequences for failing to obey orders are clearly specified in all orders, I shouldn't ever expect cooperation.

Very childish isn't it?

[ringettteplayer]

Ha! Yes note to self I will be sure to mention the penalty to my lawyer!


You guys r tha best!!