Can I read my ex’s documents in my divorce?

A question that often rears its head on the breakdown of a marriage: can I read or use my ex’s documents in our divorce?

More often than not in a busy family home, a bank statement addressed to your ex is left open on the kitchen countertop. Perhaps in your curiosity you looked and saw there was more money than expected in the account and now you are wondering what to do. Can you send this to your divorce lawyer? Can you use this to prove your ex is lying about their finances?

Before you take a photo of the bank statement or break into your ex’s office at the family home, take heed of this article!

The short answer is you must proceed with caution in relying on/using or sending documents to anyone (particularly your divorce lawyer) that belong to your ex.

Any documents that are addressed to your ex are called “Imerman documents” (named after a legal case that specifically dealt with this question, where a wife that secretly obtained documents belonging to her husband to use in their divorce).

Whilst it may be very tempting to use the documents as your smoking gun proof your ex is not being transparent or perhaps even hiding money, you should not take or make copies of the confidential documents or pass them to anyone else. If you have, at the very least is it a breach of confidentiality, privacy and data protection, at the very worst it could lead to criminal sanctions.

If you recall your ex telling you their work pension is worth £1m or they showed you a copy of the pension valuation letter, you should raise this with your lawyer if that document is not shared with you later in the course of exchanging financial information.

If you send your ex’s document to your lawyer without telling them in advance of what it is and they inadvertently look at it, depending on what it is, they may not be able to continue to represent you.

The best practice if you have documents belonging to your ex, you should tell your lawyer straight away, but do not send them copies. There are rules your lawyer must follow in order to deal with the documents properly and fairly.

If you are in the middle of court proceedings, you may even need to let the court decide how to deal with this issue. A judge will then take a view about the document(s) being used as evidence. There is no guarantee that the judge will allow this, even if you have innocently obtained them.

How you have come into possession of the document(s) can have a bearing on a judge’s decision, for example was it left open for anyone to read in the family home, or was it kept in a locked filing cabinet? No matter how the document was found, you should still not take matters into your own hands.

If you are concerned about your ex not properly disclosing all their assets or you believe your ex is about to spend all their life savings, there are orders the court can make to protect you and preserve assets until agreement is reached if necessary.

If you need further advice on dealing with your ex’s documents or advice on how to divide assets fairly with your ex, please do not hesitate to get in touch with a member of our team, who would be more than happy to help.