Family Law

Monterey Divorce Attorney Discusses Community Property Declaration

By Scott Sagaria

Monterey Divorce Attorney Discusses Community Property Declaration

If you are considering filing for a divorce in California or you have spoken to a Monterey Divorce Attorney, then you probably have some idea how community property laws will affect your property division after a divorce, however, you may not realize how much or your property is considered community property. Anything accumulated during your marriage is considered community property in California unless it was a gift or an inheritance. Anything that is community property must be divided during the divorce and your spouse is entitled to one-half.

Most people realize that community property laws will impact how bank accounts are split and whether a house must be sold but there are other assets that people often overlook. A good example of this is in the case of John Moores and his wife Becky who are going through a very public divorce. Mr. Moores is owner of the baseball team the San Diego Padres and his wife filed a motion with court over access to the owner?s box at the stadium. Of course most couple do not have such expensive items like a luxury box at a professional stadium to worry about but they may have two season tickets to a professional sports team. This is a community property item. Also most people overlook other items like frequent flyer miles and vacation time accrued during marriage.

Any item acquired during marriage in California is presumed to be community property and can be divided in kind, i.e., splitting stock shares, or monetary compensation paid out, receiving one-half of the value of your spouse?s accrued vacation time. As community property assets can be varied it is important to consider all of the possible community property assets that you may be entitled to.

If you are considering a divorce please contact our office to schedule a free consultation at the office nearest you. We have offices in Monterey, Salinas, San Jose, Fremont and Redwood City.

Full post as published by California Family Law Blog on July 14, 2008 (boomark / email).