My sister has been going through a messy divorce for the past three years (based in England). After failure of mediation to agree split of their finances, they decided to go down the voluntary Form E route, with the understanding that if they can’t reach a deal, it would go to a private court. However, my sister’s ex has clearly withheld and provided false financial information. Up until January, all negotiations were handled through solicitors, but a couple of months ago, he pushed to cut them out—claiming it would be faster and cheaper.
They were close to agreeing on a final settlement without continuing with Form E and court, but in the last week my sister found out that her ex’s company announced the sale of their business and that shares that they both bought when together in this company are about to have a significant increase in value.
It’s quite clear that he decided to push to get this deal away from solicitors and Form E because of the discrepancies that have been highlighted as part of the formal questionnaire process, but also because he knew about the imminent sale of his business which he did not declare.
My sister is going to propose that they go back to using the Form E as he can’t be trusted.
If he does agree to go back to Form E, then I worry that he could just correct his mistakes, explain them as oversights and submit the final version.
My main question is: If this does go to court, will the judge review the whole E Form financial disclosure and questioning, not just the final submission? If the judge only reviews the final submission, then is there a way my sister can provide evidence that he has failed to provide full and frank financial disclosure throughout the process which I know can lead to litigation misconduct.
Would love to hear from anyone with legal experience or insights into how courts typically handle situations like this!