Can you give me an overview of the changes to divorce law in the state?
Any person who's been through a divorce has most likely been served what's called a summons and complaint. As part of that summons and complaint, you're also served with something called the automatic orders, for lack of a better term. The automatic orders prevent you from willfully disseminating marital property right - burning through money, going to the casino, as well as other minor things such as not changing your insurance beneficiaries. If your soon-to-be ex is on your health insurance or auto insurance, you can't just go and take them off.
In addition to that, again, there's just a few other minor provisions, but those are the big things. The change that's occurring this year is it's adding lawsuits and tax lien foreclosures to it, meaning that if you're going through the divorce process and you find out, “Hey, I'm being sued,” and this could potentially impact your home, right? That could be a marital asset throughout the course of a divorce, you're obligated to disclose that to your ex and their attorney.
Could you give me an example of what exactly this will look like impacting a specific person? What exactly would change for them going through this process?
So typically, during a divorce, you're supposed to make sure you're keeping up with all of your bills. Say this divorce drags on for a long period of time and taxes aren't being paid on the house, somebody, all of a sudden, or one party to the divorce gets a notice saying, “Hey, your property is going to go through a tax foreclosure.” And if you're on the other side of it, you have to try and maybe negotiate getting that property. You want to be able to know you might be acquiring a property that's either in tax foreclosure or has been foreclosed on. And a lot of times what you find when it comes to matrimonial law is people don't necessarily like the other side, and that's really kind of holding them to task with this new amendment, be able to say, “Hey, if you think it's a good idea to not go ahead and pay your bills with the hope that this is going to impact the other side. This is really going to come back to bite you.”
Have you seen that happen where people are not paying their bills or things like that in order to get back at the other side, as you said?
Unfortunately, I've seen it one too many times. It's something where during a divorce, people tend to think, “How can I get off with paying the least amount?” And they may be under the impression that, “Hey, if I go ahead and start spending all this money, right, I want to go on a vacation. I want to go and do X, Y and Z,” they may find out down the line, even prior to this amendment, that this is going to come back to bite you. They’re going to be going through financial discovery between most likely, your lawyer and the other side's lawyer, and they're going to say, “You were spending five or $6,000 a month prior to the divorce. Since the divorce has started, you've been spending $15,000 a month. We noticed you've been going out to you all the time.”
I always use the casino reference, right? You know, they're going to be able to point out this is kind of above [their] lifestyle, and they may be able to use that to impact the final marital settlement, whether it's via spousal maintenance being paid, whether it's through a cash out refinance of a home, stocks, things of that nature.
Who is this designed to protect?
In a marriage, at least from how I've seen it my career, one side typically stays more responsible for paying the bills, and the other side, a lot of times, can be left in the dark. This is going to make it so that side that may be left in the dark usually now needs to be kept abreast of, “We're being sued for something, or, you know, the taxes haven't been paid, or we have a credit card collection judgment that's going to be coming to potentially garnish our wages and put a lien on our house.” This really is going to be able to empower the other side to be able to say, “Hey, I do know a little bit more about what’s happening, at least to an extent of if something's really going downhill, I at least have the bare minimum information.” Then they can give it to their attorney, who can explore it via discovery, reaching out to the bank, creditors, things of that nature.
And how will this impact the process for you as an attorney?
I think as always, it makes it a little bit more transparent, typically, throughout the course of a complicated, contested divorce, you're supposed to be providing the other side ongoing discovery, meaning that if you're getting additional bank statements, you're supposed to be producing those throughout the course of the action. What I've tended to find, and not always through malice by any means, but you know, once the other side responds to the initial discovery demand, and they've given the bank statements, you know, and the divorce may go on for another six, eight, [or] 10 months. People may not necessarily be pursuing it as much as they should be. And if things happen during that time, right? We're not going to be kept up to date as to what's happening.
Now with this, it's an obligation, meaning that if you fail to follow the automatic orders, you can be held in contempt of court. There can be monetary sanctions. You know, the judges do take this piece of the law very seriously, because, again, it goes back to typically, when you're going through a divorce, you probably don't like the other side, or they don't like you, and emotions and animosity can sometimes get the better of people, and they think, “Oh, it's a good idea for me to remove them from my insurance. It's a good idea for me to go ahead and cash out my retirement.” You know, things that judges have basically frowned upon and has been enacted previously in law and is now being strengthened by this amendment.
Do you think this is a positive development for divorce proceedings in the state?
I do, and the reason I say that is typically, transparency makes a divorce go by a lot quicker, meaning that if we're not spending as much time trying to get to the bottom of, what's happening, and instead putting it as an obligation on a party to disclose it, it can usually speed up a divorce, which a lot of people usually like to hear. It's a good thing. Then it can also cost them less down the line, right? They're not going to be paying lawyers. They may be able to move on and get an apartment during that time. It helps people to be able to move on with their life quicker, which, as a divorce attorney, I always say my goal is to get you to the next phase of your life as quickly and efficiently as possible, while still maintaining all the goals that you have.
