1. Facts and Background

While Client A (the plaintiff) was temporarily separated from the spouse, A came to learn that the spouse had been engaged in an extramarital relationship with a workplace colleague, B (the defendant). Although Client A reconciled with the spouse to restore the family, A subsequently identified circumstances showing that the relationship between the spouse and B continued thereafter; the marriage was ultimately not restored and ended in divorce. Client A retained LKP to bring a damages claim against B.

2. Key Legal Issues

The main issues were: (i) how to construct, on a lawful basis, supplementary evidence (such as vehicle dashcam audio recordings) where the materials originally held by Client A were not sufficient to establish the conduct objectively; (ii) how to rebut B's likely defense that the marriage had already broken down at the relevant time, using objective facts such as the parties' actual reconciliation efforts and the withdrawal of an earlier application for divorce by mutual agreement; and (iii) how to combine the conduct during separation and the conduct continuing after reconciliation into a single coherent set of facts.

3. Implementation and Outcome

LKP (i) reviewed the evidentiary weight of the materials Client A originally held and assessed both the lawful availability and the probative usefulness of supplementary materials such as vehicle dashcam audio recordings; (ii) organized objective facts indicating the continuation of the marital relationship — including the parties' reconciliation efforts and the withdrawal of the earlier application for divorce by mutual agreement — and designed a doctrinal response to the anticipated "already broken down" defense; and (iii) reconstructed the conduct occurring during separation and the conduct continuing after reconciliation into a single chronological narrative for use at the hearing. The court accepted parts of Client A's arguments, recognized that B had infringed Client A's marital relationship, and ordered B to pay consolation money. The case shows how, in matters involving separations, reconciliations, and other transitions in the marital relationship, strategies for proving extramarital conduct and rebutting a "already broken down" defense can be designed.