The Fight is Sometimes Worth it: Wife Awarded Over $ 1 Million + in Assets and Permanent Maintenance in the Divorce, Collects an Additional $450,000 in Post Divorce Maintenance Case

After the divorce, Husband failed to provide proof of all his income to Wife as required under the Judgment for Dissolution of Marriage, including, but not limited to, stock options awarded and exercised after the divorce. The end result was Wife was awarded a substantial sum of additional maintenance. The ex-Husband did not disclose the income awarded from those exercised stock options based on his claim such income was his non-marital property that Wife was not entitled to.

Under the Judgment for Dissolution of Marriage, the Wife was entitled to maintenance based on Husband’s earnings at the time of the divorce plus 30% of any additional net earned income of Husband. The ex-Husband had been paying Wife what he calculated to be his net earned income for several years.

The Wife consulted the first attorney to determine if her ex-Husband had been paying her the proper amount of maintenance. That Attorney reviewed the documents presented by ex-Husband and advised the Wife that in her opinion the Wife had no case against her ex-Husband.

Feeling defeated, the Wife went to Martoccio & Martoccio’s for a second opinion. After reviewing the Wife’s documents, the firm was hired to file a Petition for Rule to Show Cause against the now ex- Husband for failing to disclose all income documents and to obtain records to determine if her ex-Husband still owed her anything.

Through the discovery process, and after much delay and blocking by the ex-Husband, we fought hard to ultimately obtain stock and income information that the ex-Husband fought vehemently against producing. We won for the Wife $450,000 in cash in this case to resolve our claim that she was owed these stock options and maintenance. Despite what her first lawyer had recommended, Martoccio & Martoccio succeeded on her behalf.

The lesson learned is do not accept what your spouse says about his income to be the whole truth. Always consult an experienced divorce attorney to determine if you are getting what you are entitled to receive.