The main thing to do is to gather information. Copy documents; all the financial and legal documents you can find, such as: deeds, bank statements, credit card statements, income tax returns, corporate documents if there is a business, back for at leat 5 years, if you can. These documents will help to establish your standard of living during the marriage. NOTE that if you don’t have access to financial documents, you and your attorney have subpena power: he or she can send subpenas to the IRS and to financial institutions to request information. You can also do discovery: ask for answers to questions called Interrogatories, and request that documents be produced. Playing “hide the ball” is usally not successful.
Georgine Brave
Attorney at Law
Practicing Family Law since 1983