Business owner divorces are said to be the hardest divorces to litigate. A corollary to that rule is that a business owner’s spouse, actually, are the most difficult kind of divorce to litigate. Business owners are usually married to people who have no desire for the rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship. When a business owner and their spouse divorce, the spouse finds themselves part-owner of a business they barely understand. The business owner’s spouse must accept a fair value for their marital stake in the business. Furthermore, a business owner’s spouse, most likely, must maintain themselves with profits from a business they have no control over. This article details the steps that must be taken when spouse divorces a business owner in Illinois. Discovery In The Divorce Of An Illinois Business Owner’s Spouse The first step of any Illinois divorce is initiating discovery. You may be tempted to start by mediating but initiating discovery immediately will provoke the business owner to provide insufficient discovery that will give you great leverage (more on this later in the article). There is not a giant database of that lists who owns everything, everything that each person owns, and how much everyone earns. That’s all a secret…even from your spouse. You are, however, allowed to ask your spouse for what they own and what they earn. “[A] party may obtain by discovery full disclosure regarding any matter relevant to the subject matter involved in the pending action, whether it relates to the claim or defense of the party seeking disclosure or of any other party, including the existence, description, nature, custody, condition, and location of any documents or tangible things, and the identity and location of persons having knowledge of relevant facts.” Ill. Sup. Ct. R. 201(b) Discovery in a divorce against a W2 employee is very strait forward. You ask for their W2s, their tax returns, some recent paystubs and then compare those documents against their bank accounts. If, God forbid, something is missing, you subpoena the third party (their employer or their accounts) to get a copy of the documentation. Discovery for business owners is completely different. All the documents you are requesting are created by the business owner and there’s rarely a secondary source to immediately verify those documents. Business owners issue their own paychecks. Business owners can hold back dividends to themselves. Business owners control the assets of the business. Business owners […]
