Can DP's STBExW claim from me in Divorce negotiations?

[FredaMayor]

This seems to be a grey area and I'm confused: on the one hand I'm told that I am not a party in the matter so the other side can ask for my financial information, but I am not obliged to give unless it goes to court and I am compelled to by the court; on the other (which I've gathered from lawyer's websites) it seems that I will be expected to disclose my finances in a general way to the other side's solicitor even if it doesn't go to court.

I am very keen not to have to disclose anything because from my own experience, with bank statements for instance, a lot of private information then becomes available to a potentially hostile person to use as the whim might take them.

I don't have any wealth or a high income, there are no children involved and I don't have any of my own legal representation.

If it were me I wouldn't hand over my personal financial information to anyone unless I absolutely had to!

I've been here. Your money is only relevant where there are joint expenses, e.g. your DP only pays half of household bills as you pay half too. What you earn is none of XW's concern. You do not need to provide any financial information to the courted even if her side ask for it.

However if your finances aren't disclosed a court may infer you pay 50:50 to your household's living expenses which may be more than you do contribute. IF that happens your new partner may be deemed to have more disposable income than he actually has

I've been here too and can confirm the above, your DP can only disclose what he knows about your income and assets, and they will only be taken into account to calculate your DPs expenses.

My DPs ex claimed I owned my house (in which DP lived) outright and I earned double her salary (and double DPs as they earned the same. I earned about £10K more than her and had a £120K mortgage and I disclosed my salary band and the mortgage payments because her assertion was that DP had much lower outgoings than he actually did so could afford to pay her more. (This was very irritating because they had been separated for years but DP was living in works accommodation abroad prior to this so did have more disposable income, when he moved back to the UK he had to pay for his own accommodation and bills).

So it might be worth disclosing if the assumption is that you earn more than you do or your outgoings are smaller, but she can't make a claim on your income.