Hidden asset discovery – helping divorce lawyer defending your right

Unfortunately, some spouses attempt to hide assets before or during a divorce in order to avoid sharing them with to their soon-to-be ex. In order to uphold justice and fairness (as well your lawful right), your divorce lawyer will embark on legal proceedings, called “discovery”. But what if there are assets under table? You need an expert for hidden asset discovery.

Let’s get to the concept of financial arrangement in divroce first.

The first step in dividing assets during a divorce is to create a complete financial picture of all of the assets owned by each spouse. It is called “size of the pot”. Generally, these assets will be categorized as “marital” (property acquired during the marriage), “separate” (property acquired before the marriage, after separation). In general, the usual practice is 50:50 for the marital asset unless there were issues such as “need of the less financial capable party” or other less commonly quoted reasons.

Even though you may not have ownership rights in your spouse’s property, it’s important to submit to Court because it will also be counted (be it not on the legal paper).

Finding Assets When You’re the “Out-Spouse”

If your spouse handled the bookkeeping during your marriage, and you played little to no part in tracking finances, you are what some lawyers refer to as the “out-spouse.” This simply means that you don’t have immediate access to or knowledge of financial information, but your spouse does.

If you’re the “out-spouse,” your first course of action should be to simply ask your spouse for copies of all financial records. If your spouse can and will produce all records, the information gathering process might not be too painful. But, this is rarely the case. Sometimes, your spouse simply can’t find the records. If so, the two of you can work together to gather information. With online access to just about everything nowadays, it’s easy to get account records. You can also send joint requests for records to banks, insurers, retirement plan administrators, and other third parties.

Unfortunately, many spouses refuse to produce information. To our experience, they are hiding assets. Finding hidden assets in divorce can be challenging, especially for layperson and non-specialised divorce lawyer. This article explains what a basic search should entail, but we’re not suggesting that you should conduct every search yourself. You need a team of expert.

If you believe your spouse is hiding assets, you may want to contact a divorce lawyer with experience in asset search and investigation. Even if you don’t suspect your spouse is hiding assets, it’s wise to consult divorce lawyer hong kong to ensure you’re asking the right questions and if appropriate, using the discovery methods listed below. You need hidden asset discovery.

The Divorce Discovery Process

If you don’t think your spouse will voluntarily disclose all financial information in your divorce, you or your divorce lawyer will need to use a formal, legal process to get information and documents. Matrimonial lawyer and judges refer to this as the “discovery process.” The discovery process provides several methods of getting information, which vary slightly from state to state, but for the most part include all of the following:

Document demands. Your divroce lawyer can ask your spouse to produce specific documents, such as tax returns, company accounting record, financial statements, loan applications.

Written questions called “questionnaires”  Using these discovery tools, your spouse must answer questions in writing, or admit specific statements that you believe are true.

Inspection demands. You can ask to inspect property like a safe deposit box or wine collection.

Testimony given under oath. In what’s called an oral deposition, you, your spouse, and your lawyers appear before a court reporter; your spouse is sworn to tell the truth and must answer questions asked by your attorney.

The discovery process is a good way to get financial information from an uncooperative spouse because the court has the power to compel compliance. For example, if your spouse fails to produce documents, you can ask a judge to order your spouse to do so. If your spouse disobeys the order, a court may punish your spouse by imposing a monetary fines or even imprisonment or consider your assumption being correct.

Having said that, a cunning partner can be very tactful in hiding the asset. Hidden asset discovery is no place for amateur.

How can a private investigator help hidden asset discovery?

Private Investigator have special connections, making them able to search company registry, car registry and property registry. These commercial databases were not accessible to general public. With these database, the private investigator would know if the subject own a company, a car or property.

They generate leads and do surveillance to see if they own membership of yacht club, private club, and living standard.

All in all, the investigation fee would be a good investment, first by finding additional hidden asset, second, on sparing expensive legal cost by submiitted evidence that cannot be disputable.