Division of Property

Do you have questions and concerns about your property and how it will be divided? Washington State divorce lawyers from our firm understand that you are concerned about your property, and will help answer all your questions regarding property division in a divorce.

Under our state's law, all property acquired both before and during a divorce or separation must be disclosed and presented to the court. The court will then make a “fair and equitable distribution” of the property. This part of a divorce case often times will cause a great deal of stress and emotional discord between the parties.

Some property is considered community property and some is considered to be separate property. When dividing the party’s property, the court considers the nature of the property, ie. whether the property is separate property or community property.

There can be different interpretations of what the value of certain property is, as well as, who should actually get the property. It is important to have an accurate value of all the property (including businesses, investments, realty property and antiques) so that a fair and equitable distribution of that property can be more easily made.

All property acquired during a marriage is presumed to be community property . In other word, jointly owned with equal entitlement to the property for each party. There are exceptions to this rule of course, such as property acquired prior to the marriage; property acquired through inheritance; and some property acquired through settlement of a civil law suit. Community property does include income earned during a marriage, houses and cars purchased during a marriage, as well as investments that were made during a marriage.

Unfortunately, property that appears to be community property is not always as easily classified as such. Determination of community property versus separate property is not always as easy as it may seem. For example, property purchased during a marriage, but purchased with funds received from an inheritance, may be considered to be separate property. In situations such as this, the case may become more complex. Fortunately, our law firm is equipped with the knowledge and resources needed to help see you through this type of complexity. We will do every thing legally possible to ensure that your goals are met.

It is important to carefully trace funds in circumstances where the determination of separate versus community property is in question. Our law firm has experience in dealing with these very complex issues and can help even in the most difficult of cases.