In a high-conflict divorce, the single most terrifying feeling is the one in your gut: “My spouse is lying to me.”
You are staring at a sworn Financial Affidavit that claims a six-figure earner suddenly makes $40,000 a year. You are being told there is “no money” for alimony, yet you see their social media posts from expensive dinners. You are being painted as an “unstable” parent, even though you have handled every doctor’s appointment and teacher conference for the last ten years.
In a “he said, she said” battle, how do you prove the truth? A judge in a Tampa courtroom does not operate on your suspicions, your intuition, or your “he said, she said” arguments. A judge operates on one thing: admissible evidence.
So, how do you get it?
This is where the most powerful, and most misunderstood, tool in all of family law comes into play: Discovery.
To a layperson, “discovery” sounds like a dry, boring legal term. It brings to mind images of dusty law books and endless stacks of paperwork. But to an experienced Tampa divorce lawyer, discovery is a weapon. It is a legal flashlight that we get to shine into every dark corner of your spouse’s life. It is the formal, court-sanctioned process we use to hunt for the truth and expose every lie.
This is not just “paperwork.” This is the forensic investigation. This is the engine of your entire case. In a high-conflict divorce, the person who “wins” is not the person who is “right”; it is the person who can prove they are right. Discovery is the machine that builds your proof.
What is “Discovery” in a Florida Divorce?
Discovery is the formal process, governed by the Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure, that allows each party to “discover” the evidence the other side holds. It is a legal demand for information, and it is not optional.
Many people are familiar with “Mandatory Disclosure.” This is the first, automatic step in any Florida divorce. Both parties are required to exchange a set of standard documents, like tax returns, pay stubs, and a detailed Financial Affidavit.
In a simple, uncontested divorce between two honest people, Mandatory Disclosure might be enough.
In a high-conflict divorce, it is not even close.
Mandatory Disclosure is a “pop quiz” where the other person gets to grade their own paper. They will “forget” to include the bank account they opened last month. They will provide a tax return for their “failing” business but not the actualcompany ledger. They will give you one credit card statement but not the one they use for their affair.
This is why a skilled Tampa divorce lawyer immediately moves past Mandatory Disclosure and into the three powerful, formal tools of discovery. These are the tools we use to stop asking for the truth and start demanding it.
These three tools are:
- The Request for Production (The Paper Trail)
- Standard and Non-Standard Interrogatories (The Under-Oath Questions)
- The Deposition (The Under-Oath Showdown)
Let’s break down each tool and show how it is used to build your case.
1. The Request for Production: Building the “Paper Trail”
This is the foundation of your case. A Request for Production is a formal, written list of documents and “things” that we demand your spouse produce. We are not just asking for the documents they want to give us; we are demanding the documents they do not want us to see.
A common objection is, “I already gave them my Mandatory Disclosure.” This does not matter. The Request for Production is far more specific, more detailed, and goes back much further. It is the deep dive.
What a Tampa divorce lawyer asks for is a strategic map designed to find hidden assets, prove real income, and gather parenting evidence.
Hunting for Hidden Assets and Financial Misconduct:
This is where we follow the money. We will demand:
- Bank Statements for ALL Accounts: Not just the joint account. We demand statements for every account with their name on it, including business accounts, children’s accounts, and secret individual accounts, often for the last three to five years.
- Credit Card Statements for ALL Cards: A high-conflict spouse often has a private credit card. We want to see those statements. This is where we find the “dissipation of assets”—the hotel rooms, the jewelry, the plane tickets, and the expensive dinners for their new partner. This “wasted” marital money can be “added back” to your side of the ledger.
- Loan Applications: This is a gold mine. Your spouse may tell you their business is failing, but we will find the loan application they submitted to a bank six months ago where they bragged about their $500,000 income to get a boat loan. This is proof of perjury.
- All Business Records: If there is a business, we do not just want the tax return. We demand the General Ledger, the Profit & Loss Statements, the bank statements, the expense reports, and the full QuickBooks file.
- Venmo, PayPal, and Zelle Records: In the modern age, this is critical. A spouse may be moving thousands of dollars to a friend, who then hands them cash. These records expose that hidden flow of money.
Proving Real Income:
This is for alimony and child support. Your spouse will claim poverty. We prove their earning capacity.
- Complete Payroll Records: Not just one pay stub. We want their entire payroll file from their employer, showing all bonuses, commissions, and expense reimbursements.
- Business Ledgers: This is where we find the “phantom employees” (like a girlfriend on the payroll) or the thousands in “personal expenses” (their car, their cell phone, their vacations) being run through the business. This is all hidden income that a Tampa divorce lawyer can get “imputed” back to your spouse.
- Appointment Books and Calendars: For professionals like doctors, dentists, or consultants, we can compare their appointment books to their bank deposits to find “skimmed” cash income that was never reported.
Gathering Parenting Evidence:
Discovery is not just about money. In a custody battle, it is about proving who is the better, more stable parent. We will demand:
- Text Messages and Emails: We can formally request all text and email communications between you and your spouse. This is how we get the admissible evidence of their harassment, their admissions (“I know I have a drinking problem”), or their refusal to co-parent.
- Social Media Data: A spouse may claim they are “too sick” to work, but their Instagram shows them on a ski trip. They may claim to be a “devoted” parent, but their Facebook check-ins show they are at a bar every night. We can demand a full printout of this data.
- Child’s School and Medical Records: We use this to prove you are the parent listed as the primary contact, the one who attends teacher conferences, and the one who takes the child to the doctor.
The Request for Production is the “fact-finding” mission. It is how we gather the raw data. Next, we use that data to set the traps.
2. Interrogatories: The “Under-Oath” Written Questions
If the Request for Production is the data, Interrogatories are the explanation.
Interrogatories are a formal list of written questions that your spouse must answer, in writing, under oath. “Under oath” means they are swearing, under penalty of perjury, that their answers are true.
This is a powerful tool for two reasons:
- It forces them to admit facts they would rather avoid.
- It locks them into a story.
A Tampa divorce lawyer does not just ask “puff” questions. We ask specific, pointed, “no-wiggle-room” questions based on the documents we just received.
Standard “Form” Interrogatories:
Florida law has a set of standard, pre-approved questions that cover the basics of assets, debts, income, and background. These are a good start, but in a high-conflict case, we go much further.
Non-Standard, “Case-Specific” Interrogatories:
This is where the legal strategy comes in. These questions are custom-drafted to pin your spouse down.
- “Please list every bank account, foreign or domestic, you have had a legal or equitable interest in, including as a co-signer, for the past five years.” (This forces them to list the secret account, or commit perjury. There is no “I forgot.”)
- “Please state every source of income you have received since January 1, including cash, ‘gifts,’ or ‘loans’ from any third party.”
- “Please identify the person ‘Jane Smith’ and describe the nature of your relationship with her.”
- “Please state whether you have ever had a romantic relationship with ‘Jane Smith’ during your marriage. If so, state the date it began.”
- “Please list all ‘gifts’ or ‘payments’ you have made to ‘Jane Smith’ over $100 in the last 24 months.”
- “Please describe, in detail, your justification for claiming the children’s mother is ‘unstable.'” (This forces them to either admit they have no basis or to list specific, refutable ‘facts.’)
These answers are now sworn testimony. When your spouse inevitably changes their story later, your Tampa divorce lawyer will use these answers to destroy their credibility in front of the judge.
3. The Deposition: The Face-to-Face Showdown
This is the “main event” of discovery. It is what you have seen on TV, and it is every bit as powerful as it looks.
A deposition is a formal, face-to-face (or virtual) interrogation. It takes place in a conference room, not a courtroom. The people present are your spouse (the “deponent”), their lawyer, your Tampa divorce lawyer, and a court reporter who is transcribing every single word.
Everything said is under oath.
This is the “final exam” for your lying spouse. By this point, your Tampa divorce lawyer has spent months gathering all the evidence from the Requests for Production and all the sworn answers from the Interrogatories. The deposition is where we confront them with it.
It is a “cross-examination without the judge.” This is where we expose the lies, lock in their testimony for trial, and, in many cases, win the case.
A Real-World Example of a Deposition:
Imagine your spouse has been hiding a bank account and lying about their income.
- Step 1: The Trap. Your lawyer asks, “On your Financial Affidavit, which you swore was true, you listed only one bank account, correct?” The spouse says, “Yes.”
- Step 2: The Lock-In. “And when I asked you in Interrogatories to list all accounts, you again listed only that one account, correct?” The spouse says, “Yes.”
- Step 3: The Confrontation. Your lawyer places a document in front of them. “I am handing you what is marked as Exhibit 1. This is a subpoenaed bank statement from a different bank, in your name only, showing a balance of $200,000. Is this your account?”
- The Checkmate. The spouse is now trapped. They must either:
- A) Admit they have been lying under oath (perjury).
- B) Try to lie again, which is even more perjury.
We do this for everything. We confront them with the hotel receipts for their affair. We confront them with the text messages where they threatened you. We confront them with their own pay stubs that contradict their claims of poverty.
A deposition has two primary goals:
- To Gather Information: We find out what their story is and how they plan to defend their lies.
- To Destroy Their Credibility: We get them to lie on the record, so when we get to trial, we can play the transcript for the judge. A judge who sees a party has lied once will assume they are lying about everything—including their parenting.
This is also a critical part of preparing you. Your spouse’s lawyer will take your deposition. This is why you need a Tampa divorce lawyer to spend hours preparing you. They will teach you how to answer, what to say, and how to not fall into the emotional traps the other lawyer will set for you.
The “Secret Weapon”: Subpoenas to Third Parties
What happens if your spouse just refuses to produce the documents? What if they “lose” them or delete them?
This is where a good Tampa divorce lawyer uses the “secret weapon” that you cannot use on your own: the Subpoena Duces Tecum.
A subpoena is a court order compelling a third party to turn over documents. Your spouse can lie. Their bank cannot. Your spouse can “delete” their emails. Their employer cannot.
We do not just rely on what your spouse gives us. We go around them and get the truth from the source. We will subpoena:
- All banks and credit unions.
- All employers (for payroll, HR files, and retirement information).
- All credit card companies.
- Cell phone providers (for text logs).
- Airlines and hotels (to prove the affair and dissipation).
- Venmo, PayPal, and even cryptocurrency exchanges.
- The new partner (to trace the flow of your marital money).
- Accountants, bookkeepers, and anyone else who has a piece of the puzzle.
This is the ultimate truth serum. The paper trail is out there, and a subpoena is the legal key to unlock it.
Why You Cannot “DIY” This Process
Reading this, you might think, “I can just send a list of questions.” This is a mistake that will cost you your case.
Discovery is a complex legal battle of its own. For every request we send, your spouse’s Tampa divorce lawyer will send a long list of “Objections”:
- “Objection: Vague and Ambiguous.”
- “Objection: Overly Broad and Unduly Burdensome.”
- “Objection: Seeks Information That is Not Relevant.”
- “Objection: Privileged Information.”
An amateur will be stopped dead in their tracks by this. A professional Tampa divorce lawyer knows what to do next. We “confer” with the other lawyer, and when they still refuse, we file a Motion to Compel.
This is a request for a judge to force them to answer. We will stand in a Tampa courtroom and argue to the judge why that bank account is relevant, why those text messages are necessary, and why their objections are just a smokescreen to hide the truth. We will fight for your right to the evidence.
This is also a strategic chess game. We do not just “ask for everything.” That is lazy and ineffective. We draft targetedrequests designed to get the specific “killer” documents we need to prove your case.
This is not a “do-it-yourself” job. This is legal surgery, and it requires a surgeon.
The discovery process is long. It is not cheap. And it is not “nice.” But in a high-conflict divorce, it is the only way to get justice. The truth is not just “what you know.” The truth is “what you can prove.”
Do not go into this fight blind. Do not let your spouse’s lies become the “facts” of your case. Let a Tampa divorce lawyerturn on the flashlight and expose the truth, one document and one question at a time.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What if my spouse just ignores the discovery requests? They cannot. If they ignore a request, your Tampa divorce lawyer will file a “Motion to Compel.” A judge will then order them to produce the documents. If they still refuse, they can be held in contempt of court, which can mean massive fines or even jail time.
Is the discovery process expensive? It can be, but it is an investment. Spending money on a forensic accountant and a deposition to find a $200,000 hidden account is the best money you will ever spend. In many cases, when we prove your spouse was lying and hiding assets, we can get the judge to order them to pay for all of your attorney’s fees.
What if my spouse destroys evidence? This is called “spoliation of evidence,” and it is one of the worst things a person can do in a lawsuit. If we can prove they intentionally destroyed evidence (like “wiping” a hard drive or shredding documents after the case was filed), the judge can issue severe sanctions, including assuming everything they destroyed was 100% in your favor.
My divorce is simple. Do I really need to go through all this? If your divorce is truly simple and amicable, and you have 100% trust in your spouse’s financial disclosures, then you may not. But in a high-conflict case, or any case where you have the slightest suspicion, “trust” is not a legal strategy. Verification is. Discovery is that verification.
The McKinney Law Group: Tampa Divorce Attorneys Dedicated to Strong Results
We guide clients through even the most complex divorces with clarity and focus. Our Tampa divorce lawyers work to achieve practical, lasting solutions that protect your future.
Call 813-428-3400 or email [email protected] to arrange your private consultation.