Janice E. Younker

The respondent, Kenneth Leach, brought a motion to remove the applicant's counsel, Ellen Anderson, from the record in ongoing family law litigation.

The grounds for removal were an alleged conflict of interest due to the applicant, Laura Leach, being employed by Ms. Anderson's firm, the possibility of Ms. Anderson becoming a witness regarding employment benefits (specifically, reduced legal fees), and an alleged champertous fee arrangement.

The court dismissed the motion, finding no objective conflict of interest, no evidentiary basis to suggest Ms. Anderson would be a necessary witness, and no illegal contingency fee arrangement.

The court emphasized the high threshold for removing counsel and the objective standard for assessing conflicts.

In a divorce proceeding, the applicant husband sought extensive financial disclosure from the respondent wife regarding a family trust (Oceana Trust) and gifts she received from her late mother.

The husband argued this information was necessary to impute income to the wife for spousal support purposes and to calculate net family property.

The court reviewed the principles for imputing income from capital and trusts, finding that the historical gifts and trust distributions were sporadic capital amounts used for specific purchases, not income.

The court ordered limited disclosure of recent gifts and estate distributions but dismissed the husband's requests for historical trust financial statements, tax returns, and other remote documents, finding them irrelevant and an unwarranted intrusion on the privacy of other beneficiaries.