Full, honest, and complete disclosure is a critical part of divorce in California. Family Code section 2100 explicitly calls for “full and accurate disclosure of all assets and liabilities” because doing so furthers the sound public policy of “the reduction of the adversarial nature of marital dissolution and the attendant costs…”

Divorcees often ask about the legal consequences of concealing assets in a divorce case. Under California law, doing so is an express breach of fiduciary duty and the penalties can be severe. There is no better example of this than the result in the Marriage of Rossi case, where Wife tried to hide over a million dollars in lottery winnings she received before separation.

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