Divorce / custody. What is the penalty is husband violates automatic stays and sells off half his assets? My husband had 878,720

Q:  divorce / custody. What is the penalty is husband violates automatic stays and sells off half his assets? My husband had 878,720 in securities July 2013. Now in February his lawyer admits in court that he has 450k in securities but claims he had a lot of expenses. I don't have a lawyer because I hired five and my husband bought them off to sabatoge me. What is the penalty for violating the illegal stays? I read that the wife gets the money that was hidden is that true? Can anyone give me examples of precedents? I read husband hid he won the lottery so instead of getting half the wife got the whole winning because husband hid it. Thank you!


A:  David's Answer:  There are a couple of different issues going on here. First, your husband would ultimately have the obligation at trial to prove he's using the securities to pay "usual & customary expenses." If he is not, then he violated the court's automatic order. Second, even if he was using the securities to pay HIS "usual" expenses, the issue would be whether they were marital, joint expenses, or just his sole expenses. If they were his sole expenses, then the Court can consider granting you half of what was there before he started the withdrawals. All that said - you assuredly need a lawyer. If he's that rich, then he can certainly hire a very good lawyer. If you're representing yourself, you stand at a stark disadvantage to someone who probably graduated from a top law school & studied for 20-30 years just for this moment. Strongly consider shopping around for good Divorce lawyers in your area - don't hesitate to interview lawyers in Manhattan & surrounding boroughs as many won't hesitate to travel to Brooklyn for the case.  -- David Bliven, Westchester Family Law attorney (www.blivenlaw.net)