If your Ex is hiding money and you are involved in litigation relating to child support, spousal support, or even a divorce this is a major issue that you need to resolve in order to exercise your rights. Any failure by your Ex to completely disclose their income, savings, or assets can vastly affect the outcome of your case and the amount of child support, spousal support, or community property that is divided in your divorce.
This is crucial in child support matters because the amount of child support you receive generally is based on two simple and basic sets of number the percentage of time the child is with each parent and each parent’s relative income. If you believe your spouse is getting paid under the table for side jobs or that their business is doing better than they claim you will need to prove it by way of the legal process. If you are unable to do so either through witnesses that have personal knowledge of the earnings or documents that refute their assertion you are out of luck.
On the same note when it comes to a dissolution, if you believe your Ex is hiding money this could dramatically alter the amount of money or assets that you are able to walk away from the marriage with.
Due to the importance of this, it is important that you fully exercise your rights in court and use all methods available to you in order to uncover hidden money. One common and generally helpful method is through the use of a Subpoena Duces Tecum (SDT). A SDT is a method by which you can request that a third party, in this case the bank, provide documents relating to the other party and their accounts. Through proper use of this power you can obtain bank records in the form of bank statements showing all incoming funds for as many years as you request. Be mindful that when you request the bank statements to be reasonable in your request for the fact the bank will charge you for the records search as well as a copying fee per page, and if you are excessive with your request it could cost you financially.
In order to exercise this power and request documents from the court through the use of a SDT it is important that you use the proper court forms as well as time the service of all documents properly. All necessary court forms can be found on the California Courts Self- Help website. In order to properly serve the SDT you must also provide notice to the other party that you are seeking the disclosure of their bank records, to which they are afforded an opportunity to oppose the disclosure of their records. However, if all goes according to plan you will receive a stack of bank statements for your Ex’s accounts and finally be able to see if they have been depositing more money than they have claimed, or are hiding money, and be able to provide that information to the court in order to correct the lies that they have been telling and affording you and your children the justice and financial assistance that you are legally entitled to.
In order to assess your legal options in view of the current and new law it is important that you talk with an attorney about your specific situation and your rights. For a free consultation call (949) 478-3160.
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