Campbell Fiduciary Duty in a Divorce Attorney
Santa Clara County Hidden Assets Lawyer
The California Legislature has wisely passed one of the strictest fiduciary duty statutes in the country, and it sets forth the fiduciary duty owed by married spouses to each other before and during dissolution proceedings. It requires that in dissolution proceedings we make certain our clients engage in complete disclosure with their spouse and it provides teeth, in the form of sanctions, when our clients' spouse engages in something less than that same kind of complete disclosure.
California Family Code Section 2102 provides:
(a) From the date of separation to the date of the distribution of the community or quasi-community asset or liability in question, each party is subject to the standards provided in Section 721, as to all activities that affect the assets and liabilities of the other party, including, but not limited to, the following activities:
(1) The accurate and complete disclosure of all assets and liabilities in which the party has or may have an interest or obligation, and all current earnings, accumulations, and expenses, including an immediate, full, and accurate update or augmentation to the extent there have been any material changes.
(2) The accurate and complete written disclosure of any investment opportunity, business opportunity, or other income-producing opportunity that presents itself after the date of separation, but that results from any investment, significant business activity outside the ordinary course of business, or other income-producing opportunity of either spouse from the date of marriage to the date of separation, inclusive. The written disclosure shall be made in sufficient time for the other spouse to make an informed decision as to whether he or she desires to participate in the investment opportunity, business, or other potential income-producing opportunity, and for the court to resolve any dispute regarding the right of the other spouse to participate in the opportunity. In the event of nondisclosure of an investment opportunity, the division of any gain resulting from that opportunity is governed by the standard provided in Section 2556.
(3) The operation or management of a business or an interest in a business in which the community may have an interest.
(b) From the date that a valid, enforceable, and binding resolution of the disposition of the asset or liability in question is reached, until the asset or liability has actually been distributed, each party is subject to the standards provided in Section 721 as to all activities that affect the assets or liabilities of the other party. Once a particular asset or liability has been distributed, the duties and standards set forth in Section 721 shall end as to that asset or liability.
(c) From the date of separation to the date of a valid, enforceable, and binding resolution of all issues relating to child or spousal support and professional fees, each party is subject to the standards provided in Section 721 as to all issues relating to the support and fees, including immediate, full, and accurate disclosure of all material facts and information regarding the income or expenses of the party.
Fiduciary Duty in Divorce
In the last three years, we have made the spouse of our clients pay dearly in sanctions when they have engaged in conduct that was less than what our firm and the Fiduciary Statute required our client to provide.
In a Statement of Intended Decision and Judgment filed on April 10, 2007, our firm obtained from the Santa Clara County Family Court a judgment, after a contested dissolution trial, in which the court concluded our client's spouse had breached the Fiduciary Statute by fraudulently claiming that a community property single family residence rental valued at $1,272,000 was his sole and separate property, that awarded the whole asset to our client, resulting in sanctions pursuant to Family Code section 1101 (h), to our client from her spouse, of $636,000.
Put another way, our client ended up with a property that was valued at $1,272,000 in which her spouse had claimed, throughout the trial, that she had no interest.
In a Santa Clara County Family Court order filed December 15, 2008, our firm obtained an award for our client against our client's spouse for sanctions of $155,000 for our client's spouse's breach of the fiduciary statute by failure to accurately disclose income and for false statements under penalty of perjury filed with the court.
In a Santa Clara County Family Court order filed January 3, 2010, our firm obtained an award for our client against our client's spouse of $1,499,500 for our client's spouse's breaches of the fiduciary statute by secretly disposing of community property and mismanagement of a community business, including diversion of community income, that led, four days later on January 7, 2010, to a Santa Clara County Family Court order that imposed continuing sanctions of $5,000 per day that, by July 30, 2010, had mushroomed to $2,264,560.
In a Santa Clara County Family Court order filed March 17, 2010, our firm obtained an award for our client against our client's spouse of $190,620, for breaches of the fiduciary statute by making false statements under penalty of perjury in discovery responses and secretly disposing of community assets.
The $3,246,180 in sanctions awarded to our clients in the last three years in Santa Clara County is, to our knowledge, unparalleled by any other family law firm in Santa Clara County, a record of which we are extremely proud. Contact our law firm today to find out more about fiduciary duty in a divorce, or to schedule a consultation with an experienced family law attorney.
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