If you are the owner of a closely held business and you are going through a divorce you probably have a number of questions. Owning a closely held business necessarily complicates your divorce. Ownership of a closely held business creates unique discovery, classification, valuation as well as distribution issues. The first part of this series will focus on unique discovery issues that may arise where the owner of a closely held company is going through divorce.

Content of Discovery - As an owner of a closely held company you may be surprised at the amount of information that will be requested in discovery. Typically, the request will include five years of financial information which includes tax returns, balance sheets, and profit and loss statements. However, it may also reasonably include compensation of all employees and officers; key-man insurance policies, all company contracts, and customer lists.

Confidentiality - Many owners of closely held businesses object to the production