Poor Behaviour and Divorce Property Settlement

In "The effect of conduct on divorce settlements" (John Bolch, Marilyn Stowe Blog) the family lawyer blogger consider the question whether a person's conduct can have an effect upon a divorce property settlement. When considering the question or poor behaviour and divorce property settlements, the family law commentators notes:

• there are common misconceptions about the relevance of conduct to divorce settlements
• in most situations past behaviour of a spouse does not have an impact on a divorce property settlement (i.e. the person behaving badly does not get a smaller financial settlement) 
• the court can take into account behaviour when deciding the divorce property settlement, but only if the alleged conduct very serious and it would be unfair for the court to disregard it
• there is personal misconduct (e.g. adultery) and financial misconduct
• personal is the most common, but also very rarely has any impact on the settlement 
• situations where there court has taken into account personal misconduct include wife shooting her husband and a husband committing incest
• financial misconduct occurs where one party recklessly or purposely dissipates assets and includes gambling and reckless expenditure
• where financial misconduct is found, the court will try to rectify the situation by ‘adding back’ the money or assets that have been dissipated
• poor court conduct (e.g. failing to cooperate) is not usually penalised by a lower settlement, but that party may be required to pay a contribution towards the other person's costs.