Are You Owed Your Ex-Spouse’s Belongings In Arizona?

Divorce is a nasty thing, no matter what side of it you're on. Making promises to never leave one another only to break it is hard, but it doesn't just end with a document and court case.

After spending years together, it's likely you have a lot of joint property, and Arizona has an interesting way of divvying it up.

Community vs. Separate Property

The first step in finding who gets what is determining what's community property and what's separate property. These are pretty easy to differentiate. Community property refers to any property acquired during the marriage, with a few slight exceptions. This typically includes the home, automobiles, business ventures, and pets, as well as various other pieces of property acquired during your marriage.

Separate property, on the other hand, is all property acquired before the marriage, or through gift or will. This cannot be divided in divorce hearings aside from a few exceptions.

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How is Property Split?

Arizona is one of only nine states in America that classify as a "community property state". This means that in a divorce, all community property (as defined above) is split 50/50 between the disgruntled ex-lovers.

Now, this split is usually never "equal", but it must be equitable. This is where lawyers come in, who will determine the most fair way to split property equally between the two, and determine what must go where. Should you each get an equal amount of plates from the fine china, or let one party take it all and find an equal piece of property to even the scales?

[Arizona Law Group]