I have a few divorce cases where one of the parties to the divorce is not complying with the necessary steps of the divorce. In this case we are talking about when one of the parties does not complete their financial disclosures.
The financial disclosures are necessary for both parties to complete when a response has been filed. It is not required by the Respondent in default cases, however.
So what do you do when this happens? If you are trying to obtain a divorce when there has been both a petition and response filed in your case and the other party has not yet completed their preliminary declaration of disclosure, you will have to make a formal request to complete them. The preliminary declaration of disclosure is mandatory.
Of course, you will want to make sure that you have complied and served your financial disclosures before making a demand for theirs. What you can do is serve the demand letter at the same time you are serving your disclosures.
But what do you put in the letter? Fortunately, I have found a template letter which is perfect for this. All you have to do is add your information to the form and check the appropriate boxes. Click this link for a copy of the demand letter for preliminary declaration of disclosure.
In the demand letter for Preliminary declaration of disclosure, you will want to state the amount of time the other party has to comply. Most agree that if you are just serving your disclosures, that you should give them 30 days to response and complete their disclosures.
If the other party complies and files and serves their disclosures, then the letter served its purpose.
But what if they still don’t complete their disclosures? As you will notice in the letter, it says that if they do not comply with the demand for disclosures, you will file a motion with the court asking that they pay your attorney fees and filing fees and compel the other party to complete their disclosures or allow you to continue with the divorce without them doing their disclosures.
Make sure to keep a copy of your letter for your records. It is likely that you will need to offer it as proof if you end up having to go to court.
If this happens to you, please know that we can help you file the motion to compel the other party to complete their preliminary declaration of disclosure.
