Q: My wife dissipated her 401k, and the divorce is now finalized. Can I still file a dissipation claim?
I filed a motion in Aug requesting division of the marital home, in that motion I stated that she had made numerous 401k hardship withdrawals, then spent the money. At the trial opposing counsel filed and was granted a motion of limine. There is a court ordered sale of the marital home, the equity is equal to that of the withdrawals. What can I do at this point regarding the dissipation?
A:
There are strict rules about claiming dissipation.
It has to be done in a particular way and in a timely manner.
Motion in limine is used to prevent certain testimony in court.
Looks like you did not raise the dissipation issue properly and the other attorney was able to prevent you from bringing it up in court.
If the motion was granted, you could have mentioned it repeatedly and the judge would have ignored you.
A: You no longer have a claim of dissipation once the judgment is entered. This is an issue that should have been before the trial court. Dissipation is not always easy to prove to the court and in Illinois the statute regarding dissipation must be strictly complied with so that notice is given on a timely basis.
A: Your only recourse is to file a Motion to Reconsider if it has been less than 30 days since the judgment was issued. You would be asking the court to reconsider its decision regarding the dissipation. If the court granted opposing counsel's Motion in Limine to exclude any evidence of dissipation during the trial, then perhaps the Notice of Dissipation was not served on the adverse party on a timely basis pursuant to statute.
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