Sometimes in a divorce, the wife may suspect that the husband has been unfaithful and may wish to schedule the deposition of the suspected paramour. That raises more issues than you might expect.
In Florida, adultery can be a relevant factor to prove dissipation of marital assets and to request, therefore, an unequal distribution of the remaining assets. This comes about when it can be shown that the husband has been spending money on entertaining the paramour during the marriage by using marital money. If it can be shown that a spouse spent $5,000 of marital money on such activities, the remedy is usually to give the other spouse $5,000 of the marital assets before dividing the rest of the assets 50/50.
If it cannot be shown that money was spent during such a fling, then the details of the depth of the relationship, the correspondence they had and whether they had sex are irrelevant.
In addition, keep in mind that only spending on such a relationship during the marriage is relevant. If a week after filing for divorce he takes the girlfriend on a trip to Las Vegas, the money spent there will be irrelevant. What will be relevant is the amount of marital money he had in his possession at the time of the filing for divorce. If he had more than the wife, an equalizing payment will have to be made.
Bottom line: Even though the wife may want to torture the husband’s girlfriend by taking her deposition, the facts have to be shown to justify doing that.
