Imerman documents-unlawfully attained documents

[Fallinginlovewdme]

I know my ex is hiding finances, so I went through his fone, now I have evidences of his fraud. However when I showed my solicitor these documents, she said she is now under obligation to disclose it to him, as these are imerman documents! N i could have criminal proceedings against me! Does anyone have any experience with this and to what extent criminal proceedings can b dangerous?does the judge accept these as evidence?

The fact that you have showed or referenced the documents to your solicitor means they are bound to hand them over to the opposing solicitor or court.

Your ex will be informed and be aware that you have obtained them illegally. He can then make a criminal compliant or take civil action. The police will determine whether an investigation is warranted and the CPS will decide to prosecute you. It’s seems an unlikely priority but it depends on what you did to get the phone and any other factors. For example what you now do with the documents.

The information passed to the opposing solicitor will be theirs to submit to the court as part of their evidentiary submission if relevant. You won’t be able to keep the documents or use them in court. I think if you recall content you can refer to them. But you will be guided by your solicitor. He or she cannot look at them and can only use the document the opposing solicitor submits once they are turned over.

I

This thread should be mandatory reading for all those posters on the Relationships board who urge women to go through their husband's financial paperwork and meet copies of it under the guise of "getting their ducks in a row".

Well yes Myson. Although to be fair plain sight documents are fair game. For example a bank statement in kitchen drawer. But not one in his locked desk or his office. Personal phones and computers would be off limits too.

@LemonTT thanks for the information. However do u have any experience of the extent of criminal proceedings. Or its just not a major priority for officials?
Also if I can recall content, can this be used against him?
@MySonThePotato well u can go through, just not submit it to the solicitor ;)
@LemonTT if I didn't have to show it to the solicitor, n if I was self representing n produced it directly to court, do you know what would happen?

You have already presented the documents to a solicitor they now have to be passed to your ex’s solicitor. You cannot use them in court because they are stolen. The disclosure has to happen.

The more you dig this hole, the more trouble you bring on yourself.

It’s not an issue that don’t show them to the solicitor, which you have, it’s that you broke the law. It will be obvious if you start quoting confidential information that is not evidenced in court. You will have to back it up and then what do you say, in court in front of a judge.

Don’t disrespect the court.

Thanks @LemonTT. My solicitor said if we present to him, then he will b forced to do a full disclosure. You seem to know a lot about this. Thanks for your advice.

Although the Imerman case said there are two kinds of marriages - those where you both are happy to look at each other's things eg mine where we opened each other's post, bank statements had 100% agreed access to everything and that the case held is not illegal ; and the other type - where you each keep things hidden.

it may well be here that you did not have open access to each other's phones and thus did something wrong but I expect your solictor would need to ask.
www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed62973

"88. The question must, inevitably, depend on the facts of the particular case. Thus, if a husband leaves his bank statement lying around open in the matrimonial home, in the kitchen, living room or marital bedroom, it may well lose its confidential character as against his wife. The court may have to consider the nature of the relationship and the way the parties lived, and conducted their personal and business affairs. Thus, if the parties each had their own study, it would be less likely that the wife could copy the statement without infringing the husband's confidence if it had been left by him in his study rather than in the marital bedroom, and the wife's case would be weaker if the statement was kept in a drawer in his desk and weaker still if kept locked in his desk. But, as we have already said, confidentiality is not dependent upon locks and keys. Thus the wife might well be able to maintain, as against her husband, the confidentiality of her personal diary or journal, even though it was kept visible and unlocked on her dressing table. "

@Xenia thank u for ur insight. I understand what is to b done before going to court. But I need to know how court deals with it. Does it include or exclude these evidences? As I know earlier they were excluded, but did they change that? Have they made it as per case basis? I'm so anxious, as I'm still living with him and he is a proper narcissist. I just hope this nightmare ends. He will know about it this week, and I'm so worried about his reaction. 😔

I am just not an expert on it. I read the Imerman case years ago because it was also about data protection but not sure how it has been used by family lawyers. In some other areas of law if information comes to light usually the courts think that is useful. If it was obtained unlawfully then I suppose it might be different.

I lived with my ex husband for the 7 months it took us to get divorced/court approved the clean break settlement and property transfer to me and he moved out but we had no hearings and no form Es or disclosure as we both already knew 100% everything, we both did the family filing, both knew each other's pensinos, incomes, tax returns, just 100% open in that sense so we would have been in the Imerman category of no secrets. Some couples even share an email account and password; even a phone or are happy for eacho f them to see the other's phone. We even had every bank account a joint account. So in our case looking at anything would not have breached any privacy rules. I accept we were probably unusual particularly these days when some couples seem to have so many secrets and hide bank accounts and savings from each other.

In Imerman the brothers knew their sister's husband would be hiding loads of stuff so they got access to the computers to get informatino about all the financials but in that case the couple did not have the kind of openness which means you are allowed to look at each other's tihngs and I think the law was broken by the hacking in that case.