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720 - How Does Everything Get Divided Up?The first thing you need to know about how the judge divides everything up is that if you're waiting for the judge to make the decision, you better be ready to wait a while. In the Birmingham division of Jefferson County, for example, an actual trial for property division in divorce court typically won't come until a year or more after the case is filed. Most people end up working out some kind of resolution before that, but it pays to think through how a judge would do it, so you can negotiate with full knowledge. The next thing you need to know about property division is that Alabama courts do not assume that marital property ought to be divided 50/50. Alabama is what's called an equitable distribution state, which means that property division should be equitable, and it should be fair, but it doesn't have to be equal. In a short‑term marriage, the typical approach is to try to unwind the marriage. That is, the judge will try to put both parties back as close as practicable to the position they were in when the marriage began. The tendency will be to give back to each spouse whatever property or debt he or she owned on their wedding day, and then divide up in some fair way the property or debt the couple accumulated during the marriage. In a longer‑term marriage, judges are more likely to try to make some kind of equitable division. The starting point is usually something like 50/50, but they'll make substantial changes from 50/50 depending on what each party needs, who they believe to be responsible for the divorce, and who might have been most conscientious about protecting assets in the marriage. For example, it's not unusual for a judge to give the house to the party who's going to have custody of the children, even if that results in an uneven allocation of value. Alabama Family Law Center serves clients who need to get through divorce and who are able to be reasonably cooperative. The goal is for both spouses to survive divorce and move on with their lives with some money in their pockets and their dignity intact. No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers. If you'd like to make an appointment with me, call 205-979-6960. Or you can click here to return to the Divorce Line. |
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