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Who owns what?

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That's the urgent question at the center of so many divorces. It's not an easy one for the courts to answer.

 

Under New York and New Jersey law, your assets aren't automatically divided into simple, even halves. Instead, the laws in both states apply equitable distribution.

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To divide marital property, first the court needs to determine what possessions are marital, jointly owned by you and your spouse, and what property is individual property, which you can retain in full. While some items clearly meet the mold of individual property (e.g. a gift from a relative, addressed just to you), other possessions are more debatable, like ownership of a family company.

 

For many clients, these critical questions (i.e. what items are marital property — and how large a percentage of them you can retain) are the first indication that they shouldn't be standing before the Court making your case on your own. No doubt, equitable distributions arguments can get pretty tricky pretty fast.

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What possessions you own alone and which possessions you and your spouse owned jointly are some of the first questions we tackle with our clients, providing a measure of clarity for them from the outset.