When you’re married to somebody, you don’t just share a bed and a table, you share a house – a car – a couch – a TV. You share all of your favorite CDs, books and movies; linens and towels; bank accounts, bonds, stocks and properties. You share debt, or “liabilities.” These include mortgages and car loans, credit card accounts and any other amounts of money you and your spouse owed to another party. When you file for a divorce, these things don’t just “disappear”—rather, they’re divided.
In Florida, the distribution of property can either be one of the easiest aspects of divorce, or one of the most complex. It is only easy when both parties agree on who gets what, and who pays off what debts. However, this rarely happens. When the two parties can’t agree, the division of properties is left up to the judge. The judge then calls for an “equitable distribution” of marital assets and liabilities.
Despite the term “equitable,” marital property is divided fairly, but not necessarily equally. How the judge determines who gets what is based off a list of factors that they must first consider. Among those factors, there is duration of marriage, economic circumstance and the contribution of each spouse to the marriage.
To learn more about how your assets might be divided in a Florida divorce, check out the Florida Bar’s page on Property Division at: http://bit.ly/15Z6pxp
No comments:
Post a Comment