NSW Ex Spending Money After Separation - Property Settlement Insights?

[CookieMonster]

Hi,

Can anyone please tell me their court experiences in relation to family law property settlement cases where the ex spent large amounts of money on holidays, cars, houses, relatives, girlfriends, etc, to deplete the asset pool after separation? Did the court add back the frivolous spending, did they give the other party a larger % of the pool to make up for the depletion or was this type of spending allowed?

This also includes spending money in a company to reduce its value.

Thanks.

 

[RafealN]

Sorry no idea on that. Thanks!

 

[Rod]

Really depends on the circumstances and the attitude of the judge.

Some items get added back into the pool and then split, other items can be assigned to their side of the ledger, and others just plain ignored.

All you can do is itemise each one and argue your side of the story then hope for the best. Didn't work for me but that was a long time ago. I'd do the same thing again today due to my perception that it was unfair 20 years ago, and it is still unfair today. I'm over it emotionally and it took a while, but once a court makes its orders in most cases there is no point fighting it unless some gross error has occurred. Given the large discretionary powers judges have in family law a higher court will be reluctant to find errors.

 

[RafealN]

Thank you so much for your brief details. Glad to know about this.