Disclosure in Ancillary Relief Proceedings and the Role of Divorce Solicitors

Family Lawyers deal with issues such as divorce and domestic violence

. The area of Family Law can be both highlight sensitive and confusing. Divorce solicitors at Duncan Lewis provide confidential advice with effective representation. Many divorce proceedings are not straightforward. It can be safely assumed that in most cases where there is an issue with finance and property, also known as ancillary relief, one or both parties will suspect that the other has assets or property that they have failed to disclose in a deliberate attempt to defeat their claims. It is a divorce solicitor's role to help parties divide their assets.

It is a requirement of the family law Protocol that before proceedings are even issued attempts must be made by the parties (generally with the help of their divorce solicitors) to clarify their claims and identify the issues between them as soon as possible and to achieve this they must provide full, frank and clear disclosure of the facts, information and documents which are material and sufficiently accurate to enable proper negotiations to take place to settle their differences. Indeed if the parties are seeking legal aid they will be required to first attend mediation, which also requires full disclosure to be provided by both parties.

Proceedings are therefore normally only ever issued when one of the parties is not satisfied that the other has provided an adequate disclosure of their assets and financial circumstances or the attempts to negotiate between a settlement through communication with divorce solicitors has failed because one or both of the parties believe that they could achieve a better settlement at Court.

After the proceedings have been issued the Court will direct that both parties complete and swear a Financial Statement (Form E). This requires them to give full, frank clear and accurate disclosure of their financial and other relevant disclosure. This duty of disclosure is an ongoing obligation and therefore both parties must disclose any material change in their finances, even after Form E has been completed and until their divorce solicitors have concluded the full proceedings.

The duty of disclosure is taken very seriously by the Courts and any deliberate breach of this duty can have very serious consequences on the defaulting party; this is where divorce solicitors are appointed to assist with this, be it for a legal aid divorce, or a private divorce. As the Form E is a sworn document if either party has deliberately lied then this could be treated as Contempt of Court and is a punishable criminal offence holding the risk of imprisonment or fine, although it is unlikely that such action would be taken.

The most likely means that would be used by the Court to punish someone that has deliberately failed to disclosure information is to order them to pay part or all of the other party's costs. Where proceedings have reached the Final hearing stage the parties' costs will have already reached many thousands of pounds and therefore being burdened with the other party's costs could be a very severe punishment indeed.

The dishonest party also runs the risk of the Court finding that they have lied or deliberately withheld material information and to then draw adverse inferences against them, which could result in the Court finding that a particular asset or property is owned by that party without actually having any documentary evidence to prove it. This would then have an effect on how the available assets are distributed between the parties, as the Court will include the undisclosed assets or property in the matrimonial pot. It is important to tell your divorce solicitor everything about your case as this will make it much easier for your divorce solicitor to represent you as best they can.

It will also seriously damage a party's credibility if it becomes clear that they have lied or withheld information. Therefore, in a case where one party might be asking the Court to draw an adverse inference against the other, if their own credibility is called into question it is less likely that such an inference will be made.

Even if the dishonest party is successful in concealing assets from the Court at the final hearing any order made can be set aside by the Court if it comes to light that material financial information was not disclosed.

t is important that both parties understand the importance of disclosure when entering into divorce Ancillary Relief Proceedings, as even an innocent and unintentional failure to disclose material financial information could have very serious consequences, making your case much more complicated and your divorce solicitor need to be sensitive to how you are feeling during this highly sensitive area of family law.

Duncan Lewis has a large team of family solicitors who deal with legal aid divorce. This article highlights some of the issues that you maybe going through if you are going through a divorce. Duncan Lewis family solicitors are able to assist you if you are going through a divorce and if you are facing a similar situation. All of our legal aid solicitors are based in London, and can help with family law including divorce and domestic violence.

Disclosure in Ancillary Relief Proceedings and the Role of Divorce Solicitors

By: Duncan Lewis

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