Request to produce

[thecapt]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? IL
I received a packet from my wifes attorney that says supreme court rule no. 214 request to produce. One says to produce financial informations for the course of the marriage and to break down my gross/net income and break down basic monthly expenses. The other is a marital interrogatories asking a bunch of questions and wants me to sign at the end. Obviously I'm not going to sign anything. Do I have to produce this information? Can't her attorney figure this information out? Do I have to fill out the Marital Interrogatories? I'm trying to do as much of this myself as possible before giving it to a attorney for review. Thanks for your help.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? IL
I received a packet from my wifes attorney that says supreme court rule no. 214 request to produce. One says to produce financial informations for the course of the marriage and to break down my gross/net income and break down basic monthly expenses. The other is a marital interrogatories asking a bunch of questions and wants me to sign at the end. Obviously I'm not going to sign anything. Do I have to produce this information? Can't her attorney figure this information out? Do I have to fill out the Marital Interrogatories? I'm trying to do as much of this myself as possible before giving it to a attorney for review. Thanks for your help.

Yes, you do have to produce the information and fill out the interrogatories. However, you do so to the best of your reasonable ability. If you cannot provide some of the information without going to unreasonable cost or time, its reasonable not to provide that part.

However, do not try to get away without providing all current financial information. Otherwise, you will just irritate the judge and have to provide it anyway.

 

[thecapt]

My wife and I are being very civll about the process. Can her and I come up with what we feel is fair and give it to our attorneys and have them draft up a settlement? Do I have to sign the questions form?

 

[LdiJ]

My wife and I are being very civll about the process. Can her and I come up with what we feel is fair and give it to our attorneys and have them draft up a settlement? Do I have to sign the questions form?

If you and she can do that, and if both of you can stand up to your attorneys if necessary ( then yes, you can certainly do that and it will save both of you money in legal fees.

However, if you come up with anything that is significantly non-standard, you will likely have to fight your attorneys.

 

[thecapt]

what do you mean by nonstandard?

 

[LdiJ]

what do you mean by nonstandard?

Well, as an example, in a divorce situation normally marital debts and assets are split 50/50. Each asset and each debt doesn't have to be split 50/50, but the net of the whole asset/debt division should be. If your agreement is significantly skewed one way or another, that could be a problem.

Another example, childs support should be according to state guidelines. If it is significantly altered from state guidelines, that could be a problem.

When my ex and I divorced, we came up with an agreement that was so "non-standard" that both of our attorneys were pitching a hissy fit. It also went both ways. There were things in the agreement that my ex shouldn't have agreed to and things in the agreement that I shouldn't have agreed to. There were also things in our agreement that were NOT enforceable. We BOTH knew that. Both of our attorneys said that there was no way that the judge would sign our agreement. The judge did.

My attorney recognized that I was the client and that what I wanted was what the attorney would do. My ex's attorney was the opposite. My ex spent quite a bit of money on his attorney as a result. When my ex complained to me about that I said "my attorney doesn't like it any better than yours does, but my attorney recognizes that I am the client and that what I want, goes." At that point he put his foot down with his attorney and it got done.

We have never been back in court, ever. We split up when our child was 3 and she is 22 now. He and I ended up being best friends. For me, our relationship is like having another brother.

Our "non-standard" agreement was a wonderful thing. However, if he had not put his foot down with his attorney, or if our agreement had been seriously unfair financially, it might have been a different story.

So...make a fair agreement financially. If you have children make a fair agreement based on the reality of the situation with your children, and tell your attorneys what you want.

However, if the agreement is too skewed, expect problems.

 

[thecapt]

wow. Thank you so much for your advice. That helped out a lot.

 

[mistoffolees]

Our "non-standard" agreement was a wonderful thing. However, if he had not put his foot down with his attorney, or if our agreement had been seriously unfair financially, it might have been a different story..

Note, however, that the system is there to protect the parties involved. If you're going to deviate significantly from guidelines, it is imperative that you understand what the guidelines are, why they are set up that way, and exactly why you want to deviate. Make sure that BOTH parties are informed as to the options and their rights before deviating.

The worst possible situation is where one party convinces the other that a deviation from guidelines needs to be done - while the other person doesn't understand why they're doing it.