Question: When my husband and I married, he owned a home. It was in his name but not paid off; we paid the mortgage together and made small improvements over time. Later, I became disabled. I took some money that I had – a little bit from an inheritance, and some from my retirement accounts...
Divorce, Home Improvement, and Disability: Question
We had a case, many years ago now, where the couple spent ages (and a ton of money) arguing over how to divide a series of commemorative china plates featuring a number of different waterfowl. The argument was that these pieces were valuable and held sentimental value to each; dividing them between the parties was...
As far as equitable distribution – the legal process where your assets and liabilities are divided during divorce – is concerned, division of the retirement accounts is pretty easy. But, because retirement accounts represent a large portion of what most people have saved throughout their lives, they are also very emotionally complicated. The higher earning...
There are so many anxiety-provoking things about the divorce process, it’s hard to speak to them all at once. Scratch that; I actually think it is literally impossible to speak to all the things at once. Fears about what will happen to the marital assets are rampant among divorcing women. It probably doesn’t help, either,...
Most of the questions that we get – at least in the early stages of a separation or divorce – is a basic one. “What should I do first?” It’s a good question, too, because I think it’s always smart to go into something knowing what to expect and having at least the outlines of...
Just because you want a divorce doesn’t necessarily mean that you really know what you are entitled to receive – or, even more than that, what it might look like after the ink is dry on your final divorce decree. Hey, that’s okay! You’ve probably never been in this position before and, heck, even if...
If there is a phrase I HATE in family law – along with calling a woman a golddigger – it’s a man referencing being taken to the cleaners. It’s rooted in such, deep, toxic internalized misogyny that it’s hard for me to believe anyone really believes it, but – then again – the world has...
It can be confusing understanding how property is divided in Virginia divorce – or even what, exactly, is divided. In Virginia, there are three classifications for property – hybrid, marital, and separate – and only the marital portions are subject to division. Hybrid is, as its name suggests, part marital and part separate property. ...