A finalized divorce decree doesn’t close the courthouse door. If you’re asking what you can sue your ex-spouse for after divorce, the honest answer is that former spouses regularly bring claims for hidden assets, broken settlement terms, unpaid child support or alimony, custody violations, botched retirement-account transfers, defamation, emotional distress, and unauthorized access to email or financial accounts. Each has its own legal basis, its own deadline, and its own realistic odds. The right question isn’t whether you can sue. It’s which category your dispute actually fits into.
Hidden Assets and Financial Fraud
Concealing money, undervaluing a business, or lying about debts during the divorce is the single most common reason people end up back in court after a decree is entered. Both spouses owe a duty of full financial disclosure, and when one side violates that duty, the other can ask the court to reopen the property settlement.
Under rules modeled on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), a court can set aside a final judgment based on fraud, misrepresentation, or misconduct by the other party.1U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60 – Relief From Judgment or Order Most state family courts follow the same framework. A motion under these rules generally must be filed within one year of the judgment for fraud-based claims, though some states allow an independent action for fraud on the court with no fixed deadline.
Proving concealment usually takes more than suspicion. Forensic accountants trace money through shell companies, unreported accounts, and undervalued property, and their work is often what turns a hunch into evidence a judge will act on. When the fraud is serious enough, some judges award the innocent spouse a disproportionate share of the recovered assets as a penalty.
Breach of the Settlement Agreement
A divorce settlement is a binding contract. Refusing to transfer a jointly held property, failing to pay off debts assigned in the agreement, or ignoring an obligation to maintain life insurance for the children are all breaches you can sue over.
The remedy scales with the severity. For smaller lapses, a letter from an attorney or mediation often resolves things, and many settlement agreements include a mediation clause requiring the parties to try that route first. When the breach is serious or informal efforts fail, you can ask a judge to enforce the agreement. Courts can order specific performance, meaning the other side must do exactly what the agreement requires, award money damages for the losses caused, and in some cases hold the violating party in contempt.
Civil contempt is the court’s sharpest enforcement tool. It’s designed to coerce compliance rather than punish, and a judge can impose escalating fines or jail time until the person complies. Judges often describe it by saying the contemnor “holds the key to the jailhouse door,” because incarceration ends the moment they follow through.
Watch the calendar. A breach of a written settlement agreement is subject to your state’s statute of limitations for written contracts, which ranges from three to ten years depending on where you live.
Unpaid Child Support
Unpaid child support is one of the most heavily enforced post-divorce obligations in the country. Federal law requires every state to maintain specific enforcement tools, including automatic income withholding, liens against property, interception of federal and state tax refunds, and passport denial once arrears exceed $2,500.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 666 – Requirement of Statutorily Prescribed Procedures to Improve Effectiveness of Child Support Enforcement
Income withholding is the default collection method. A court or child support agency issues an order directly to the employer, and the support amount is deducted from wages before the parent ever sees the money.3Administration for Children and Families. Processing an Income Withholding Order or Notice When that isn’t enough, the Federal Tax Refund Offset Program collects past-due support by intercepting the noncustodial parent’s tax refund.4Administration for Children and Families. When Is a Child Support Case Eligible for the Federal Tax Refund Offset Program
If your ex has disappeared, the Federal Parent Locator Service cross-references data from the IRS, Social Security Administration, Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, and other federal agencies to track down noncustodial parents and their assets.5Administration for Children and Families. Overview of Federal Parent Locator Service You can’t contact the FPLS directly. Requests go through your state’s child support enforcement agency.
Custody Order Violations
Custody violations range from chronically ignoring the visitation schedule to relocating with the child without the other parent’s consent or a court’s approval. Courts view unauthorized relocation as especially serious because it changes the custody arrangement without judicial oversight.
The affected parent can file a motion to enforce the order. Judges have broad discretion. Remedies include making up missed parenting time, modifying custody to reflect which parent is actually cooperating, and holding the violating parent in contempt. Repeated violations or parental kidnapping can trigger criminal charges as well.
Document everything. Save texts, emails, and calendar entries showing missed pickups or unilateral schedule changes. Courts respond to specifics, and a written pattern is far more persuasive than a verbal complaint that the other parent has been “difficult.”
Unpaid Alimony
When an ex-spouse stops paying court-ordered alimony, the recipient can pursue enforcement through the same contempt process used for other divorce orders. Courts can impose income withholding, place liens on property, and in persistent cases impose jail time for civil contempt until payments resume.
The paying spouse isn’t stuck either. If circumstances have genuinely changed, such as a significant job loss, a serious medical condition, or the recipient’s remarriage, the paying spouse can petition for modification. Filing that petition is essential. Simply stopping payments because you believe you’re entitled to a reduction will land you in contempt regardless of how reasonable your position sounds.
Bankruptcy doesn’t provide an escape. Federal law classifies alimony and child support as domestic support obligations, and these debts are specifically excluded from discharge under both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. Property settlement obligations arising from a divorce decree are separately protected from discharge as well.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 523 – Exceptions to Discharge If your ex files for bankruptcy, the support checks must keep coming and the property division obligations survive intact.
Retirement Accounts and QDRO Problems
Retirement accounts are among the most valuable and most frequently mishandled assets in a divorce. Federal law generally bars pension plans from paying benefits to anyone other than the participant, but it carves out an exception for Qualified Domestic Relations Orders. A QDRO directs a plan to pay a portion of the participant’s benefits to an alternate payee, typically the ex-spouse, as part of the property division.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 US Code 1056 – Form and Payment of Benefits The Department of Labor publishes guidance on the requirements.8U.S. Department of Labor. QDROs Chapter 1 – Qualified Domestic Relations Orders An Overview
If your ex was supposed to cooperate in submitting a QDRO and didn’t, or a QDRO was never entered despite the settlement requiring one, you can go back to court to compel compliance. Timing is critical. If the participant spouse retires, changes jobs, or dies before the QDRO is in place, recovering your share becomes dramatically harder.
Defamation
When an ex-spouse spreads false statements that damage your reputation, you may have a defamation claim. Social media has made this increasingly common. A single post accusing someone of abuse, theft, or infidelity can reach hundreds of people within hours and cause real professional and personal harm.
A defamation claim requires three things: the statement was false, it was communicated to someone other than you, and it caused actual harm to your reputation. Truth is an absolute defense, and opinions, no matter how harsh, are generally not defamatory. Statements made in court filings or testimony are typically protected by litigation privilege, so your ex can say damaging things during the divorce proceedings themselves without defamation liability. The claims that succeed involve specific, provably false factual assertions made outside the courtroom.
Damages can include lost income, damaged business relationships, and emotional harm flowing from the reputational injury. Move quickly on evidence, because social media posts can be deleted and witness memories fade.
Emotional Distress and Other Personal Injury Claims
Suing an ex-spouse for intentional infliction of emotional distress is possible, but the bar is high. Courts require conduct so extreme and outrageous that it goes beyond all bounds of decency. Persistent harassment, stalking, threats, or deliberately destroying your relationship with your children can qualify. Ordinary post-divorce hostility, even when genuinely hurtful, almost never meets the threshold.
You’ll need to show the conduct was intentional or reckless, extreme enough to shock a reasonable person, and that it caused you genuine emotional harm. Medical records, therapy notes, and documentation of specific incidents are the backbone of these claims. Vague assertions that your ex “made your life miserable” won’t survive a motion to dismiss.
One boundary to know: the majority of states have abolished the old interspousal tort immunity doctrine that once prevented spouses from suing each other for personal injuries. In most jurisdictions, being a former spouse creates no special barrier to filing a tort lawsuit. A handful of states retain some form of the immunity, so check your state’s law before filing.
Snooping in Your Accounts
An ex-spouse who reads your email, monitors your location through a shared device, or logs into your financial accounts without permission may be violating federal law. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act prohibits the intentional interception or unauthorized access of electronic communications, and it applies between former spouses.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 2511 – Interception and Disclosure of Wire, Oral, or Electronic Communications Prohibited
Violations carry criminal penalties and civil liability. A person whose communications were intercepted can sue for actual damages, statutory damages of up to $10,000, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney’s fees.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 US Code 2520 – Recovery of Civil Damages Authorized Authorization is the key element. If you previously shared a password for a limited purpose, that doesn’t give your ex blanket permission to rummage through your account history or messages.
After divorce, change every password, revoke shared access to cloud accounts, and remove your ex from any device-sharing arrangements like family phone plans or location apps. Prevention is far cheaper than litigation.
Deadlines You Cannot Miss
Every post-divorce lawsuit has a deadline, and missing it means losing your right to sue no matter how strong the claim.
- Breach of settlement agreement is treated as a breach of written contract in most states, with deadlines ranging from three to ten years.
- Fraud used to reopen a divorce decree generally must be raised within one year under rules based on Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), though an independent action alleging fraud on the court itself is not subject to that one-year limit, and some states impose no fixed deadline for that type of claim.1U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60 – Relief From Judgment or Order
- Defamation is typically one to three years from the date the false statement was published, depending on the state.
- Emotional distress usually falls under the personal injury statute of limitations, which runs one to six years in most states.
- Enforcement of existing child support and alimony orders is generally not subject to a traditional statute of limitations, though states may limit how far back you can collect arrears.
The clock usually starts when you knew or should have known about the violation, not when the divorce was finalized. For fraud, this discovery rule matters enormously. If your ex hid assets and you learned about them three years later, the clock may start from the date of discovery. Even so, the safest approach is to act as soon as you suspect a problem.
Before You File
Having a valid claim and having a claim worth pursuing are two different things. Post-divorce litigation is expensive, slow, and emotionally draining. Court filing fees for enforcement motions typically run a few hundred dollars, and attorney fees add up quickly.
Assess whether your ex actually has assets to pay a judgment. Winning against someone who is judgment-proof gives you a piece of paper and nothing else. For support enforcement, the government’s collection tools are powerful and often available at little or no cost through your state’s child support agency. For other claims, you’re bearing the litigation costs yourself unless a statute or your settlement agreement provides for fee-shifting.
Factor taxes into the math too. Damages for emotional distress, defamation, and similar non-physical injuries are taxable income.11Internal Revenue Service. Tax Implications of Settlements and Judgments The exclusion from gross income applies only to damages received on account of personal physical injuries or physical sickness. Emotional distress alone doesn’t count as a physical injury for tax purposes, though you can exclude amounts that reimburse actual medical expenses tied to that distress if you haven’t already deducted them.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 US Code 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness Punitive damages are always taxable, and interest awarded on past-due child support is taxable as interest income even though the underlying support is tax-free.
Mediation is worth considering for disputes that involve ongoing co-parenting or financial entanglement. It’s faster, cheaper, and the resolution tends to stick better because both sides shaped it. Mediation only works when both parties negotiate in good faith, though. When your ex is hiding assets, ignoring court orders, or harassing you, the courtroom may be the only venue with enough teeth to solve the problem.