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Protecting What Matters Most

What Determines Marital Property Division?

On Behalf of | Feb 27, 2017 | Property Division

Divorce is a challenging and emotionally charged process with a lot of moving pieces. Property division is often thought of as the most difficult aspect of divorce.

If you and your spouse find yourselves unable to agree on who should get what out of the divorce, you are going to need an attorney that will take a results-oriented approach to the discovery and division processes. This will allow you to avoid expensive and time-consuming litigation.

Having to divide up bank accounts, retirement accounts, business assets, property obtained during the marriage, artwork, and all other marital property can bring out the worst in people and make an already painful divorce much harder. After all, you may have strong emotional attachment to certain items that your spouse tries to lay claim to, which could be very stressful.

However, if you simply cannot come to an agreement out of court, you are going to need an attorney with the ability to thoroughly and properly prepare your case for trial. This will include a discovery process, which will draw out a complete listing of all marital assets eligible for division and assign them each a value. It will also identify any debts held by you and your spouse so that those can also be properly assigned by the judge.

The judge will look at factors like the following in determining the division of marital assets:

  • The behavior of you and your spouse during the marriage.
  • The custody agreement regarding any children. The custody will be based on what the court deems will be in the best interest of the children.
  • The length of your marriage.
  • You and your spouse’s income, occupation, and employability.
  • The overall age and health of both of you.
  • Contributions and efforts made to the household by each of you, including chores and repair services.

Alimony, payments made by one spouse to another following a divorce, may also be awarded. The goal of alimony is to empower a lesser financially stable party to be financially independent and capable of supporting themselves. Alimony will be based upon the same factors that are used for the rest of the property division.

There are still many other factors that a judge may consider when trying to divide up the assets of your marriage. Therefore, it is crucial that you hire an attorney with the ability to conduct very thorough discovery and strongly execute your interest in the courtroom. You need a family law attorney that will help you lay the foundation for a better life following your divorce and set you up for success in your new life.

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