Wastage in Family Law – What happens if my ex-partner has a gambling problem and will this affect my property settlement?
Rafton Family Lawyers have a specialist team of lawyers at Parramatta, Macarthur, Richmond, St Mary’s, Penrith and Glenmore Park that assist with divorce, separation and property settlements including cases where an ex-partner has embarked on a course of wastage of assets both sole and joint, both prior to and after separation.
Generally speaking, in all family law matters there are initial steps that need to be taken and investigations including exchange of financial disclosure. This refers to disclosure of all relevant financial documents by each party which would include bank statements as well as statements of any gambling applications, credit cards or other sources where funds may have been used for gambling purposes.
Once that first step of the forensic investigation takes place it can then be determined and forensically analysed by your specialist family lawyer to provide advice to you as the impact this may or may not have in relation to arguments in your case.
There are 2 main areas where arguments can be made. The first area is in relation to contributions. This is an argument that relates to contributions made to joint and sole assets both during the marriage, prior to marriage (or relationships in the case of defacto matters) and following separation.
The second area where arguments can be made are the areas that are set out in Section 75(2) of the Family Law Act 1975 in the case of married couples and in similar provision in the legislation in the case of defacto couples and the subsection of that act is subsection O. This relates to any other significant factor.
After meeting with your specialist family lawyer and following exchange of financial disclosure which in some cases can involve the issue of a subpoena for any relevant documents that have not already been provided, your specialist lawyer in your divorce and separation can provide advice to you of the impact that gambling may have on the arguments that you make in relation to your property settlement matter. There have been a number of instances where the wastage has been so significant that the person that is alleged to have conducted a course of wastage such as through gambling has received less of the assets after separation than the person that was engaged in a course of preservation of assets.
As in all family law cases they need to be analysed on an individual and case by case basis and that is why it is important to have the relevant information available and your lawyer can advise you of the exact outcome.
Overall however, wastage through excessive gambling is certainly a factor that can be argued in any family law matter and will need to necessarily involve a course of gathering the relevant information through source documents such as bank statements and transactions and credit card statements.