Costs

My husband is divorcing me after running off with our life savings plus the family car. He has left me with nothing other than my state pension and i am therefore a litigant in person. We are waiting for a date for the FDR. I have just issued Form D11 because he has not made full disclosure even though the Judge at the FDA told him he had to answer my questions and queries on his disclosure. He will not provide his credit card statements for the last year even though there are some large amounts paid on his credit card according to his main bank statements and he paid over £10,000 on his credit card (which is more than my state pension for the whole year).
He has been represented by a solicitor from the start and is depleting all the money that he actually owns up to on legal fees. He claims to have given away several hundreds of thousands of pounds to his children and also transferred his 50% share in a property from his previous marriage to them.
We have been married for over twenty years.
Will the legal costs that he’s incurred come out of his settlement from the divorce or will i just have to accept that the money he’s spending was in his bank account and therefore he could spend it how he liked. He is now pleading poverty and says he will have to borrow from his sister to meet future legal costs but I know this isn’t true because by my reckoning there should be over £200,000 in savings.
Btw, he was a controlling coercive spouse who kept me completely in the dark on all financial matters and kept all our savings in his own bank.
Please help if you can.
thankyou

If he has dissipated matrimonial assets without your knowledge or agreement then there may be a way to ask for them to be added back to the pot and seen as funds he has already had.
His legal costs should be paid by him.
20 years is a long marriage. There should be assets to share.
Are you able to tell us more about your situation? Ages, incomes, assets etc?
As LIP you may benefit from some support from one of our consultants who is experienced with court matters.

Hadenoughnow

We have a holiday home in Italy worth about £350,000 but have rented homes in the UK since 2012. I have proof via emails from his ex wife that his daughter is ‘holding’ money for him to the tune of over £100,000. He has probably lodged money with his son as well to keep if out of my reach. I am 71 and he is 70. I had to move out of the rented home to move in with my daughter in cheltenham until divorce is settled. When we first married i owned 60% of my home in Surrey and he had a 50% share in a home from his previous marriage, worth much less. He has since transferred that property to his children, since he realised that we would be divorcing. So, he has given assets and cash away. What is the likelihood any of this would be added back please.
Thank you for any help.

We have a holiday home in Italy worth about £350,000 but have rented homes in the UK since 2012. I have proof via emails from his ex wife that his daughter is ‘holding’ money for him to the tune of over £100,000. He has probably lodged money with his son as well to keep if out of my reach. I am 71 and he is 70. I had to move out of the rented home to move in with my daughter in cheltenham until divorce is settled. When we first married i owned 60% of my home in Surrey and he had a 50% share in a home from his previous marriage, worth much less. He has since transferred that property to his children, since he realised that we would be divorcing. So, he has given assets and cash away. What is the likelihood any of this would be added back please.
Thank you for any help.

We have a holiday home in Italy worth about £350,000 but have rented homes in the UK since 2012. I have proof via emails from his ex wife that his daughter is ‘holding’ money for him to the tune of over £100,000. He has probably lodged money with his son as well to keep if out of my reach. I am 71 and he is 70. I had to move out of the rented home to move in with my daughter in cheltenham until divorce is settled. When we first married i owned 60% of my home in Surrey and he had a 50% share in a home from his previous marriage, worth much less. He has since transferred that property to his children, since he realised that we would be divorcing. So, he has given assets and cash away. What is the likelihood any of this would be added back please.
Thank you for any help.

how does adding dissipated assets back to the pot affect their recoverability?

Adding back assets allows the court to take them into account when making a decision. For instance, if a party had dissipated £100k, the judge could divide what is left and redistribute the dissipated amount.

Also, it is possible to join other parties to the proceedings, which is particularly common when money is given to another part without adequate explanation or where property is transferred. The third party becomes an intervenor and if they have conspired will end up paying dearly.

Charles