What happens if my partner is dishonest or doesnt disclose everything financially?
This can of course happen, as it does sometimes in mediation or in the conventional legal process. Under the terms of the Participation Agreement, the lawyer must withdraw from acting for their client if the client has withheld or misrepresented information intentionally, or is participating in the process in bad faith. Likewise, it is open to your lawyer to advise you to withdraw from the process if they do not consider that your partner, (or indeed their lawyer), is keeping to the terms of the agreement. If you discover, after a settlement agreement has been reached, that your partner has failed to disclose relevant information, then collaborative family law is no different from any other negotiated settlement. If the outcome of the settlement would have been different had the correct information been available, you can seek to overturn the agreement, even after it has been approved by the court.
