Separating spouses often execute separation agreements without ever going to court. People know how expensive and futile family law litigation tends to be. Out of court separation agreements are always preferred. However, happens when one of the separating spouses attacks the agreement four years later?
The courts take a negative view of this if the parties had independent legal advice. Usually the attacking spouse says the other person didn’t disclose everything, financially speaking. For instance an interest in a business, income from a loan, or sale of shares. The test is whether such non-disclosure is significant in the context of the entire relationship. As such, even a $500,000 non-disclosure could be deemed not significant in the context of a multi-million dollar relationship.
The Ontario Court of Appeal in Turk v. Turk (2018) ONCA 993 decided exactly this and awarded $25,000 costs against the attacking spouse.
