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Division of
Property
Marital property
includes personal possessions, real property and money. If you and your
spouse cannot agree on how to divide your property, the court will
divide it for you. The court generally divides the property as follows:
First, the court
must identify what property is marital property and what property is
separate property. Marital property is all the property that the parties
obtain during the marriage, including the increase in value of the
parties' separate property. After the marital property is identified,
the court must equitably divide it. This does not mean equally. The
court does not consider who is at fault in the divorce in the division
of property.
The court may order
that certain property be sold and the money received be divided as the
court feels is fair. This often happens when the husband and wife cannot
agree on who keeps certain items.
The court considers
the entire situation of both parties involved in a marital dispute. The
court attempts to divide the property as fairly as possible based upon
all the facts and circumstances. The court tries to consider the
interests and needs of the parties and custody of any minor children.
The court may grant possession of the marital residence to the parent
who has custody of the minor children, either while the children are
under 18, and order it sold when the youngest child turns 18, or may
award the residence to the custodial parent and offset the equity of the
marital residence against other property.
The Court must also
consider the allocation of marital debts and would typically award the
debts to the party that received the property.
The Court may
consider the fault and the condition of the parties and award alimony in
solido (lump sum amount of money) where after an equitable division of
property, the court determines that one spouse needs more than the
property to support him or herself.
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