DIRTY DIVORCE TRICKS - Denmon Pearlman · DIVORCE DIRTY TRICKS Page 01 Far too many people play dirty to try to come out on top in their divorce case. For many, this involves shielding

DIRTY DIVORCE

TRICKS

12 Common Dirty Tricks Spouses Play

Don't Become Victim to These Tricks

By Christian DenmonFL Divorce Lawyers at Denmon Pearlman Trial Lawyers

By Christian Denmon, Florida Divorce Lawyer https://denmon.lawyer/tampa-divorce

DIVORCE DIRTY TRICKS

ContentsSTEP 1:Hiding Assets in Anticipation of Divorce 01STEP 2:Starving the Other Spouse…Financially 03STEP 3:

06STEP 4:Spending Money Wildly 07STEP 4: Secret Copies or Downloads 08STEP 5:Stealing Bank Statements, Health Care Records, and Other Documents 09STEP 6:Dummy Emails 10STEP 7: Extortion 11STEP 8: Faking Violence as a Custody Play 13STEP 9:

14STEP 10:

15STEP 11:Alienating Children from the other Spouse 16STEP 12:What to Do To Protect Yourself 17

By Christian Denmon, Florida Divorce Lawyer http://denmon.lawyer


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Far too many people play dirty to try to come out on top in their divorce case. For many, this involves shielding assets, hiding income, or otherwise taking actions to try to get a positive

alienating children or doing other tactics to try to minimize time with the children and the other parent.

What’s important though is that these dirty tricks are real. They do happen. And if left

trick is when the spouse who controls the money or other assets hides some or all of those assets from the other spouse in anticipation of a divorce.

Consider the all too common scenario of

from which she goes shopping, pays

Hiding Assets in 01

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In Florida, the courts will consider

means wherever that money has

marriage. Therefore, such assets will

under the law just is not something that they can stand. The spouses often

assets are out there, and the spouse playing the dirty trick will keep them all

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spouse who controls the purse strings

call this, “starving the spouse.” The goal of this trick is to force the needy spouse to

Consider this hypothetical scenario. A

for 25 years.

could re-enter the workforce.

the relationship to spell out the parameters of the deal, laid it on the line to the wife:

02



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Time and time again, this hypothetical scenario has played out. Time and time again

how they operated during the marriage and that was the dynamic they had.

proceedings. The court has the inherent power to order temporary support,

are met even while a divorce is still pending.

In Florida, alimony and child support are heavily dependent on the net income of

the paying spouse makes, the more he is likely to pay.

paying spouse makes too little, the court

spousal support to the other spouse, and only nominal child support.

A surprisingly common dirty trick is for

spouse could throw his hands up in the air and say, “Judge, I just don’t have any money to pay support.”

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A surprisingly common dirty trick is for the payer

that the spouse could throw his hands up in the air and say, “Judge, I just don’t have any money to pay support.”

While this trick is common, the other spouse has

to argue for imputation of income to another spouse if that other spouse is voluntarily unemployed or underemployed.

marriage worked a 40-hour workweek and lots of overtime. In anticipation of a divorce, and not wanting to pay support to his spouse, the crane operator

for as many hours a week as he wants — and that’s fully what the crane

are taken care of.

In this fact pattern, the other spouse can argue to the judge that the crane operator

for purposes of calculating alimony and child support. Then, the wife should argue, that

upon the former crane operator spouse’s imputed income, and not the current income while working at the grocery store.



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purposes of child support calculations is not necessarily the same income as for the

In this case the spouse who is

order to avoid this dirty trick. Judges try

many of them have not run their own

engage an attorney that understands



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dirty tricks is the, “I’d rather

doesn’t get any of it” trick.

wife truly supports the

hard during the marriage and



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retirement account the wife has accrued. The wife just can’t stand that idea and in an

see it all gone than for him to get any of it.

your face. Yet emotions run rampant in divorces, and it is something that we see all the time.


the divorce case.

In anticipation of divorce, it is very common to see one of the parties gather evidence against the other party. This crosses the line when one of the parties goes into the private computer or email of the other party and makes copies or downloads of the other party’s information. In many circumstances, this sort of



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divorce are second only to those involving the death of a loved one. People do crazy

to do crazy things.




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healthcare records, and other documents.

his or her healthcare records. Yet, especially in contested child custody litigation, an overaggressive spouse may use the dirty trick of stealing the health records of the other spouse, turning them over to his or her attorney, and trying to use them to tactical advantage without permission of the other spouse or the judge.




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technological skills. In recent years we’ve seen a huge rise in a spouse creating fake emails and

often used for child custody purposes, and almost always

spouse.

divorce with a not so savvy wife, and custody litigation ensues. The technologically

attorney, who then uses them in the case.

This really happens, and much more than you would ever guess. When this happens

prove that the technologically savvy spouse is creating fake evidence.




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more rampant in divorce litigation than in almost any other area of law.

maliciously threatens an injury to the person, property or reputation of another, or

intent to compel the person so threatened, or any other person, to do any act or

“You will give me 100 percentcustody of the children or I

your entire career.”




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A wife has taken out a domestic violence charge (whether deserved or not)

against him, if he will just agree to pay a heightened amount of alimony and childsupport.

the deal that he wants.


The vast majority of the time injunctions or restraining orders are

the victim of domestic violence and truly needs protection. However, in

not uncommon to see a

and make outrageous allegations in order to get an upper hand in a



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of months or even years will have a higher degree of leverage in the child custody litigation in Family Court.

The result is that we see spouses faking violence all the time as part of a custody play.

worth the time and energy put into defending them.


A truly dirty tactic: sometimes a spouse will call all the other attorneys in town to try

attorney. The wife spends an afternoon on the phone setting consultations with the

divorce.



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attorneys in town and goes through the

down from even speaking to him

spouse. However if the other spouse

evidence to prove that his spouse did

divorce case. Again, like many of the

person.


father. He didn’t go to any of the events for the children, didn’t take the kids to school, and didn’t take them to their doctors’ appointments.

turns into the most hands-on parent the world has ever seen.

By Christian Denmon, Florida Divorce Lawyer http:/denmon.lawyer


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there are certain situations where a parent truly does want to spend more time with

to talk to her attorney to develop a strategic plan during the pending divorce to show


spouse in order to hurt the other spouse or to decrease the amount of time the other spouse has with the children.

more than a couple of hours a week supervised during a pending divorce case.

-

turn the children against the father. The hope from the mother is that at the end of the day the mother will or the court will allow the mother to present testimony of the



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These cases are grave and severe. When they happen, the dad would

tactical with his attorney.

psychologists who are trained in spotting and dealing with alienation involved in the case to help prevent the alienation or


and they happen all the

defended, and in many

around so that the

tried to play the dirty trick

worse position in front of the judge that if they did it



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is. It’s when the spouse who has the dirty trick played on them does nothing that

consultation with a divorce attorney in your area to discuss what you’re up against, what’s at stake, and determine a good game plan going forward.
