During a divorce, each spouse is required to make a full disclosure of their property so the court can fairly decide issues of asset division, child support and spousal support. But what happens if your spouse decides to hide assets from the court and from you? How would you know you’re being cheated and what can you do about it? At Dawson Family Law, PLLC, we provide the protection you and your children deserve. After 40 years of divorce litigation experience, I know all the tricks unscrupulous spouses use to try to get an unfair advantage. I am meticulous in tracking down hidden assets, often working with forensic accounting experts to prove fraud and to compel the full disclosure the law requires.
Spouses may use the same strategies to hide assets from their spouses as are used to shield property from taxation or from creditors, such as placing funds in offshore accounts or in the names of other parties. In the lead-up to a divorce, a spouse might use such devices as:
Fortunately for the innocent spouse, all of these strategies leave breadcrumbs. Having dealt with countless divorce cases where failure to disclose finances was alleged, I am prepared to investigate thoroughly to uncover the truth.
If you are initiating a divorce, you should try to get copies of your spouse’s financial records before you file. If, once you serve papers, your spouse starts moving assets, you have clear evidence of manipulation. If your spouse initiates the divorce, he or she may already be hiding assets from you. A thorough examination of your last few years’ tax returns, business records, bank statements and other financial records could contain clues that would lead the court to conclude there’s more to your spouse’s resources than meets the eye. A judge could order your spouse to disclose records he or she has withheld that favor you during asset division. When assets are discovered, courts can take action to recover them, including the voiding of any transactions used to hide them. This could mean awarding 100 percent of the hidden assets, as well as the cost of attorney’s fees, to the innocent spouse.
Dawson Family Law, PLLC protects divorce clients from fraud in the distribution of assets throughout the greater Detroit area. For a free initial consultation to discuss the process and your options, please call 586-514-0084 or contact me online. My office is conveniently located one-half mile south of M-59 (Hall Road) in Troy.