I am often told by my BC Family Law clients that they suspect family assets or family money have been hidden or gone missing near the end of a marriage. To avoid this problem I recommend you keep a close eye on assets, bank accounts, company financial statements and credit cards amongst other assets and liabilities. Make copies of financial documents and keep them is a safe place and act immediately if you suspect fraud against you.
In the event assets have been disposed of, a court must balance the need to fairly divide ALL of the assets at the end of a marriage against allowing days of trial time to be occupied by a roving investigation into each spouse‚Äôs spending habits throughout what may be many years of marriage. On the one hand we have a line of cases that say once hidden assets have been proven the court might punish the guilty party by awarding all the remaining assets to the innocent spouse as ‚Äúnon-disclosure is the cancer of matrimonial law litigation‚Äù. On the other hand the BC Court of Appeal has recently released the decision of Kuo v. Chu, 2009 BCCA 405 which applies a potential time and fairness limit on the investigation of past dispositions: (more…)
