Family law and Divorce - What is financial disclosure?

After you have decided to divorce your spouse or dissolve your civil partnership, you will have to reach an agreement with them regarding the way your finances are divided. If you do not do this, each party will still have live financial claims against each other and this right could last for years.

If you are unable to reach an agreement about your finances based on discussions between yourselves or negotiations via solicitors, you will have to issue financial remedy proceedings at court and part of this will involve providing the other party with financial disclosure. Disclosure is the process of sharing information with the other party.

You have a duty to the court to give a full, frank, clear and accurate disclosure of all your financial, and any other relevant, circumstances. This includes sharing details of all bank accounts, investments, business assets, properties, pensions and debts.

The case of Goddard-Watts v Goddard-Watts [2019] EWHC 3367 (Fam) is a reminder of how important it is to fully disclose details of your financial position.

In this case, the court found that the husband had deliberately and dishonestly not disclosed the discussions for the sale of his company that were taking place before the proceedings concluded and the court had made a decisions as to how the assets should be shared.The sale of the company would likely have meant the wife would receive a greater share of the assets and therefore the court ordered a second re-hearing (the husband had already failed to disclose information earlier on in the court proceedings) of the wife's claims.

If you would like any further information or advice in relation to the division of assets on divorce or when dissolving a civil partnership, our specialist family lawyers are happy to help. Our lawyers have offices based in Wolverhampton and Cradley Heath and provide assistance to clients across the West Midlands including: Stourbridge, Kidderminster, Birmingham, Dudley and Walsall. 

For all new enquiries, please call 01902 328 355 or complete our online enquiry form and a member of our team will respond.