Quit his job less than 2 weeks before divorce final hearing

[Pleasegotobed]

Posted in chat but realised I should have posted here!

My STBXH has quit his job at his family company two weeks before our final court hearing in a fortnight.

His job is currently advertised at double the salary he is now apparently earning. The salary he was earning was already low for his skills tbh. He's more than halved his income.

Can he do this?! I'm in shock. Does anyone have any experience.. please tell me it will be okay.. this is the latest installment in a long list of bad behaviour but its a new low tbh.

This is why people in divorces need legal advice.

If he resigned to avoid being sacked for some glaring malfeasance that's one thing.

If, in practice, the family company will pay him 'under the table' and he's trying to conceal matters then another kettle of fish.

Unclear from your post if you mean he has given up work completely and therefore now has zero income or whether he has moved to a different job with a much lower (half) his previous salary?

Assume he is doing this to minimise his child maintenance obligations which is pretty shitty behaviour

If you aren't already doing so then I would focus your energies on maximising your own earning potential as you ultimately have no control over him so better to focus on what you can't control rather than what you can't

I have legal advice I’m just waiting for my solicitor to come back to me whilst panicking!

He has moved to a new job with half the earnings. Think he’s doing it to change the divorce settlement rather than minimising cms - his income was / is very high and at the fdr the judge said spousal maintenance would be payable.

Yes, he can do that, but it may not have the effect he wants. The law requires the court to look at his earning capacity as well as his income.

That is reassuring, thanks. My solicitor says she is "perplexed by his thinking on this" which was slightly reassuring - from what I've read online it doesn't seem like the court will just accept that this is his income now..

This is just the latest stunt in a whole catalogue of shit. I am so tired of it all. He has already: removed our kids from the family trust and therefore refused to pay their school fees as he couldn't afford it (they had to be taken out of private school), invented a "loan" from his dad that no one has heard of and has no documentation, reduced his dividends to less than half of what he was previously drawing... amongst many other "incidents".

All whilst bringing his girlfriend to our shared FMH and leaving her underwear on the sofa.

I really hope the judge can see through him.

Not a solicitor, but judges aren't stupid. Good chance they will see right through that, and take a dim view of his choice.

His earning potential is much higher. If he's refusing to earn to avoid maintainence, then they might award you more capital in the settlement instead.

My exH drained our savings and ran up a LOT of debt while we were separating. He tried to claim they were joint debts and have it reflected in the settlement. It didn't work.

As others have said, you need professional advice, but until you hear back, try not to panic. I doubt it will go the way he's hoping.

thanks I really appreciate knowing that. It’s very reassuring!

His job is advertised on indeed at twice his declared salary… (so means his “new” income is a third of what it “should” be)

we’ve offered exactly what the fdr judge suggested and he has totally refused to settle. Just so you know I’m not being hugely unreasonable here!! The last judge told him he was way off..

im just so tired of it all tbh

The judge will see through his shitty behaviour and ask him why he quit his job. His earning potential is exactly the same as it was before he quit his job. Your solicitor should point out how he has deprived his own children of their trust fund and pulled them out of their schools.

Download the job ad before it disappears. You can then use it to show his earning capacity is really much higher than what he claims…

I’m sorry you’re going through this. There must be a divorce blog that they all frequent!

In ours he was conveniently sacked two weeks before final hearing. District judge shrugged and said she couldn’t order any substantive maintenance as he was now unemployed. It also meant there was no provision for school fees so dc went into a state primary until I could re-establish myself and fund them myself. Three months after divorce he’d secured another role only now as an independent consultant.

It doesn’t end unfortunately, six years post divorce he still hides income. He declares 40k as a contractor, when he previously earned 7 times that! He also deducts his travel expenses from the meagre amount he contributes via CMS. I can’t even get a contribution towards our children’s private medical bills!

Judges see this behaviour all the time but in my experience nothing is done about it. My advice is to expect very little by way of support for dc and anything you do get is a bonus!

@Pleasegotobed how did this all pan out? I'm hoping the bastard didn't get away short changing you!

No idea yet! We ended up having an extra day in court because he sacked his solicitor 3 days before the hearing and decided to self represent - except he wasn’t allowed to cross examine me himself because he has a dv injunction. He decided he wouldn’t abide by that so turned up on the first day and insisted he be allowed to cross examine me which the judge refused and ended up with it being adjourned…. So a month later we tried again, that was early September… no judgement yet and it’s five months later!

No judgement yet? How long is the likely wait? I assumed it would be fairly quick?