Does a spouse have a duty to make full and honest disclosure of all relevant financial information in a Divorce Agreement?

In Rick v. Brandsema, the court established the rule that spouses who are negotiating for settlement of the division of family assets have a duty to make full and honest disclosure of all the relevant financial information. It was said that the deliberate failure to make such disclosure, where it causes a settlement to be negotiated that is not in substantial compliance with the objectives of the Divorce Act, will likely lead to judicial intervention (see paragraphs 5 and 47). A breach of this duty would appear to provide another ground on which negotiations for a separation agreement may fail to meet the requirements of the first branch of the “first stage” test in Miglin. As stated at paragraph 1 in Rick v. Brandsema, the negotiations must be “free from informational and psychological exploitation.” I can see no reason why the duty to make full and honest disclosure should not apply where the issue is spousal support rather than division of assets.

In further describing the circumstances in which the court would intervene for breach of the duty to disclose, the court in Rick v. Brandsema stated in part as follows: