Do’s and don’ts on accessing your ex’s financial documents
Can I access my ex-partner’s personal and financial documents? It’s a question we hear often and not surprisingly it’s a bit of a legal minefield.
People can stumble across confidential documents if for example they’re separated but still living under the same roof, or if you have continuing access to mail, email accounts, or documents that have been saved to the Cloud.
But getting your hands on these documents – and even passing them on to your solicitor – can affect your family law case.
Generally speaking, the court takes a dim view of anyone who “improperly obtains” documents, and solicitors have an ethical obligation to prevent getting inadvertent or unauthorised access to those documents.
Confidential documents
When a couple are still married, there’s an implied permission about opening each other’s mail, but this permission is revoked after separation.
The same goes for access to any private or confidential papers. If your ex’s documents are only accessible by a computer password for example, and are obtained by you using that password, there can be serious consequences.
It is an offence to obtain restricted documents held on a computer and disclosing these documents to someone else. There is no legitimate justification for improperly or illegally obtaining confidential documents that belong to someone else and any documents which have been obtained improperly, cannot be used as evidence.
Legal professional privilege
Communications and documents between a lawyer and a client are confidential and protected by legal professional privilege.
If privileged documents come into the possession of your solicitor, either purposely or inadvertently, they have an ethical obligation to disclose the privileged documents to the other party.
Depending on the content of the privileged documents, your solicitors’ engagement in the matter could be compromised and they may have to stop acting your behalf.
What can I do?
To reduce the risk of your former spouse accessing your confidential or privileged documents, you should change your email passwords and any default settings relating to the Cloud that could be accessed by your ex.
If you accidentally receive a privileged document from your ex, you should let them know immediately and offer to destroy the copy you have received. And if you have accidentally sent privileged information to your former partner, you should ask them to destroy that copy straight away.
If you need advice about separation, divorce, or any other family law matter, contact Michael Lynch Family Lawyers today on: (07) 3221 4300 or email: [email protected] Our family law experts are here to help you.
