San Diego Men’s Rights Divorce Lawyers
Common Community Property Questions
California is a community property jurisdiction, which means that when a couple decides to obtain a divorce, this set of laws will govern how the property of the marital estate will be divided. Unfortunately, community property laws can be extremely complicated and confusing, and if you are facing the prospect of a divorce and you want to make sure that your legal rights are properly protected, you need to seek the help of experienced San Diego men’s rights divorce lawyers as soon as possible.
Three Tenets of California Community Property Division
The law lays out three different issues that must be analyzed when it comes to dividing property under the realm of California law. These three issues include:
- Characterization – Characterization of property basically involves deciding whether property is community property, separate property or a combination of both.
Characterization can be a difficult process to complete. Generally, property that was acquired by one of the parties before the date of the marriage or after the date of separation will be seen as separate property and not subject to division. The same can usually be said with regards to gifts or inheritances. However, certain types of property can be converted to marital property and other types of property can become partial community property if both parties contribute to the original asset.
- Valuation – Valuation basically involves placing a tangible, numeric value on a particular asset so that it can be included in the property division.
Valuation can also be extremely complicated in certain situations. One of the most common types of assets that must be valued is that of a business if one of the parties owned a business and both parties contributed to its worth. This can involve the help of forensic accountants who can place a value on that business for purposes of property division.
- Division – Division is the process of dividing the assets between the spouses.
Finally, after the first two steps have been taken, the property must be divided. Clearly, not every asset can simply be split down the middle and given to the respective parties. Therefore, certain concessions must often be made that provide an entire asset to one party with the appropriate offset provided for the other party. Overall, the result of this property division must represent an equitable and fair split that reflects that equal amount of value added by each spouse during the marriage.
As can be seen, property division in a community property jurisdiction such as California can be extremely complicated. Unfortunately, mistakes can be made and people can be left with an unfair result in certain situations. If you’d like to make sure that you give yourself the best chance to walk away from a divorce with a fair result, contact the San Diego men’s rights divorce lawyers at the Men’s Legal Center today to schedule an initial consultation.
