Division of Property

Los Angeles, California, Area Divorce Lawyers

With all the emotions and financial repercussions involved in divorce, our attorneys and staff strive to make the process as painless and efficient for you as possible. However, we also recognize that your future financial security and happiness may require an intense effort to get what you deserve.

In your divorce, asset protection may become an important issue. If you need to aggressively defend or pursue your rights to assets and property, please contact us to begin preparing and developing your case.

Pursuing Favorable Marital Property Division

Aside from disputes over child custody, some of the most difficult issues involve marital property division. In fact, the resolution of many contested divorce cases often comes down to sorting out each party's rights to various assets.

It is very important for divorcing people to understand that:

• In California, all income and assets acquired during the marriage, with certain exceptions, are considered community property — to be divided equally, regardless of what percentage was generated by one spouse or the other.
• It is incorrect to believe that the spouse who has made more money will get a greater percentage of the assets accumulated during the marriage.
• Some assets held jointly during the marriage may be treated as separate property in the divorce, such as property that one party deeded to the other.

Establishing Ownership of Separate and Marital Property

The most commonly disputed issue in dividing property is whether an asset, such as a home, should be considered community property or separate property belonging to one party. These can be complex problems, as a deed or other document may support one conclusion but the facts of the situation may support another.

We will call on the expertise of a qualified accounting resource to help make your position and rights clear. We can also seek court orders for independent evaluations to substantiate our clients' ownership interests in assets such as a closely held family business.

Our significant experience has demonstrated that every divorce involves compromise — both during the process and going forward after the divorce is finalized. As such, our attorneys will attempt to negotiate for you on such important matters as marital property division, promoting compromises that are favorable to your best interests and guarding against those that are unfair to you. Please contact us for counsel if your divorce may include negotiation or general disagreement over separate and marital property division/asset division.