To be sure, Boris has an obligation to provide adequate records of his income and expenses in order to enable the court to determine his income,[10] and he has manifestly failed to do so. In such a case, it is open to the court to draw an adverse inference and impute income to the party who has failed to comply with his disclosure obligations.[11] At the same time, in my view it is appropriate to exercise a degree of caution before imputing large amounts of income based on a vague and uncertain record. As MacLeod J. noted in Van Haren v. Stewart, there are pragmatic reasons for such caution.[12] Even though temporary support orders are without prejudice to the findings at trial, setting temporary support at a level which turns out to be artificially high (or artificially low) may well result in large claims for retroactive adjustments at trial. The need for such large adjustments may well inappropriately incentivize the parties to continue the litigation rather than resolve the matter without the necessity of a trial.
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