Hide and Seek

There was recently reported in the press a case of a man who won £50,000 playing Deal or no Deal on TV.

The winner spent the money in the space of 4 months, before the television show aired, as he was in the middle of a Divorce and wanted to make sure that his estranged wife “wouldn’t get a penny”.

The estranged wife apparently only found out about the winnings once the show aired but Mr Brown, the winner, had by then purchased a number of household items, a second hand X-type Jaguar car, a holiday in Mexico, an ipad etc.

Once discovered, the wife applied to court and an injunction was imposed to prevent Mr Brown spending any more of his winnings, if any remained.

Mr Brown will no doubt have to detail exactly what he spent the money on and there will, no doubt, now be argument about his financial conduct – although he did apparently use some of the money to pay off debts and paid for an electrician’s course, having been signed off work for “depression”.

Although Mr Brown’s conduct may be taken into account and the items purchased with the money potentially be divided between the parties, the reality is that a large part of the winnings have gone and the items reportedly purchased are unlikely to hold their value and are almost certainly far less useful to Mrs Brown than the capital that would have been available.

It highlights the importance of maintaining an eye on your spouse’s lifestyle and spending after separation and within the course of a Divorce. I am not talking about making a note of each time they do a food shop or the purchase a new toy for the children but if there is unusual and excessive spending (cars, holidays, expensive items etc.) then questions must be asked about how that is all being funded.

It also goes to show the lengths to which people will go in cases of Divorce to “deprive” the other from any share of what they perceive to be theirs.

This all against a backdrop of each spouse having a duty to provide full and frank disclosure of their financial position – that duty being an on-going one within proceedings and designed to help the parties (and the Court) ascertain what is available for distribution and what would be fair.

I imagine that Mr Brown will have achieved an increase in both his and his wife’s legal costs in determining their matter and an awful lot of ill-feeling between them – a sad state of affairs when you consider that the parties have 2 young children and will have to co-parent for some time to come.

Making a Clean Break of it!

I can't tell you how many people have come to me and said, "we haven't got anything so all we need is a Divorce" or "it's all sorted so we just need to get the Divorce done".

People assume that divorcing their husband or wife brings an end to all links between them. Leaving aside the ongoing link of any children, few people realise that financial claims between them will remain open beyond the point of their divorce unless they do something about them.

Those claims might include claims for maintenance, lump sums, property and pensions and, whilst they can be relatively easily dealt with on divorce, if they are not it can leave people defending claims from ex-spouses years after their Divorce.

It is, of course, understandable for those with limited marital assets or for those people who have agreed how they want to divide their assets to focus more on the divorce and less on dealing with the financial claims but you must be aware that additional work is needed to deal with the financial claims, their dismissal does not come as a consequence of the divorce process and forms no part of it.

If there are no assets of the marriage then you may simply need a "Clean Break Order" drafted and executed by you both - that dismisses all financial claims between you and prevents either party coming back against the other at a later stage.

(Be careful though - women on lower incomes and caring for dependent children might be better advised to keep their maintenance claims open, whilst dismissing the remainder of claims.)

If there are assets of the marriage but there has been agreement reached then a "Consent Order" needs to be drafted, setting out the agreement and dealing also with the dismissal of future claims.

Whether it is a Clean Break Order or a Consent Order that you need, the Court will have to approve it before it becomes legally binding - like I say, this is not an automatic part of the divorce process.

Whilst you might consider it unnecessary and not worth the extra £300 , a word of warning - there have been cases relatively recently involving lottery wins after divorce - the unassuming winner having to defend a claim from his ex-spouse who in the end was awarded some of the winnings - a cautionary tale

So please....make a clean break of it!!