Atlanta, Georgia Family Law Blog

Someone recently asked on our website: I have been married for 9 years and my name is not on the house we live in, do I have a legal right to any money from the home?

Yes, you probably do have a claim to a portion of the equity in the marital residence. To fully answer this question we would need a little more information. For instance, is there any equity in the home? You cannot divide equity if none exists.

In Georgia we divide marital property equitably. That raises two issues. First, what is marital property? Marital property is generally any asset (or debt) that is acquired during the marriage so long as the property was not a gift or an inheritance that has been kept separate. Property which was owned prior to the marriage can also be considered pre-marital and may not be divided by the court. The court can divide marital property regardless of whose name the property is in. Secondly, "equitably" simply means fair in the opinion of the court.

If the house was purchased during the marriage by either you or your spouse, chances are it is marital and any equity would be divided by the court. If the home was purchased by your spouse prior to the marriage, you still might be entitled to a portion of the equity. In this case we would perform a Thomas calculation to determine what portion of the equity was pre-marital and what portion is marital. Then, the court could decide how to equitably divide the marital portion. 

Please follow the links below for more information.  

http://www.siemonlawfirm.com/Property-Division/Divorce-and-the-Marital-Residence.shtml

http://www.thedivorcelawyeratlanta.com/Family-Law/Property-Division.shtml  

Can you continue to have sex during your divorce? Some people might think this is an odd or unusual question but it actually comes up quite a lot. It seems that some people keep having sex even though they are in the middle of a very contested divorce. They fight like crazy in court and mediation and then go home and have sex. I am not a psychologist so I will not try to analyze why they do this but I am a lawyer so let's take a look at this situation from a legal perspective.

Georgia has a number of requirements that people must meet before the court can grant a divorce. These requirements range from jurisdictional, such as requiring the plaintiff to live in the state for at least 6 months prior to filing, to having a ground for which a divorce is permissible, such as adultery or irreconcilable differences. One such requirement is that the parties be "legally separated". "legally separated" under Georgia law means that the parties are not living together as husband and wife. Obviously, in the current economy it is not always feasible for the parties to immediately maintain separate homes, so they end up living under the same roof while the divorce process is underway. This arraignment is permissible as you can live under the same roof but not be "living as husband and wife".

However, if the parties have sexual intercourse, then the requirement of being legally separated is no longer met and the case will be dismissed. Once the case has been dismissed, it must be filed over again and the plaintiff must swear that the parties are now living in a state of separation. 

http://www.thedivorcelawyeratlanta.com/

http://www.siemonlawfirm.com/  

My husband and I are planning on divorce. His assets are under his parents name and he earns as much as I do. Can I claim any?

Our answer:

I believe the question that you are asking is, do you have any claim to assets that are in your husband's parent's name. The short answer to that question is no.
That being said, if you can show that he transferred those assets to his parents to avoid dividing them in the divorce, the court could offset those assets from other marital assets or order him to reimburse you for the value of those assets. To fully answer this question, we would need to know more facts about your situation.

For more information please visit one of our websites:

http://www.siemonlawfirm.com/Property-Division/

http://www.thedivorcelawyeratlanta.com/Family-Law/Property-Division.shtml 

A Person recently asked us:

How do you determine jurisdiction? Married for 42 years. Primary residence is in Georgia and own condo in Florida. Wife is now staying in Florida since November 2011. I want to file for divorce in Georgia, but how do I know where jurisdiction will be?

Answer:

The question of Jurisdiction can be a very complicated one. As a general rule a person has the right to have any civil lawsuits brought against them in the state and county where they reside. Of course there are exceptions to this rule and the issue of "where they reside" can be rather subjective and up for argument. For example, if your wife is just on an extended vacation in Florida, then she still resides in Georgia for the purpose of jurisdiction. If she moved to Florida in 2011 and intended to make Florida her home then she would reside in Florida. The primary exception to the general rule would be Georgia's long arm statute which would allow for Georgia to exercise personal Jurisdiction over the resident of another state. However, to qualify for jurisdiction under the long arm statute you must meet very specific requirements. For that reason, you will probably need to seek the advice of an experienced Divorce Lawyer. For more information on the process of filing for divorce, please visit the links to our websites.

http://www.siemonlawfirm.com/Divorce/

http://www.thedivorcelawyeratlanta.com/Family-Law/Divorce/Divorce-Process.shtml

One of the challenges of divorce is having to make so many important decisions while you are also dealing with powerful emotions that can potentially cloud your judgment.

Decisions about finances, child custody and other important questions can't wait until a divorce is final, after you've had time to heal emotionally. They have to be made while you're still emotionally raw.

Keep this in mind, when you talk with an Atlanta divorce lawyer or take over steps to move forward with the divorce process.

There are, however, tangible things you can do to help make good decisions, even while you are still healing.

For one thing, it's very useful to organize your financial records. This will help you get a clearer picture of much money you have and how much you'll need post-divorce. So start assembling tax documents, payroll records, retirement account statements, and other information.

Having this information at your fingertips will be especially helpful if your spouse or ex-spouse is hiding assets or putting up other forms of resistance to a full and fair divorce settlement.

Child custody arrangements can be difficult to determine for many reasons. Points of contention can range from lifestyle choices, such as a parent's smoking, to fundamental differences on a child's religious upbringing or schooling.

An Atlanta child custody attorney is often asked to resolve such issues.

Sometimes, a spouse's military deployment can be a factor in child custody decisions. But under a bill proposed in the U.S. House last month, judges would not be allowed to consider certain types of military deployments by a parent when determining the best interest of the child for custody purposes.

Under current law, a military deployment can work against a spouse who is trying to maintain custody rights.

The proposed bill would add a provision to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which was originally passed by Congress in 2003.

The change would not apply to all types of deployment. But it would apply to deployments in which the military orders include a prohibition on family members accompanying the service member. Combat assignments are clearly the most prominent example of this.

There's a huge, qualitative difference between raising a child and buying a car. But if most parents knew just how expensive it is to care for a child, they might well suffer from sticker shock. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated in 2010 that it costs over $200,000 for a middle-class family to raise a child from birth to age 18.

Understandably, then, child support is an important matter to resolve for many divorcing couples in Georgia. When it comes time to talk with an Atlanta divorce attorney, arrangements for making child support payments are often a key issue.

Recently, the question of jailing so-called "deadbeat dads" has garnered considerable attention in Georgia. Five fathers who were jailed for failing to pay child support are challenging the use of incarceration for nonpayment in a lawsuit brought against the state of Georgia

The men argue that, if someone is unable to pay, jailing them for nonpayment amounts to a form of debtor's prison. Their lawsuit may become a much larger one, if thousands of other parents who did jail time for failure to pay child support are allowed to join in.

Money is a factor in many divorces. Arguments about money can strain the relationship between spouses and contribute to a decision to end the marriage.

This is as true of divorce in Atlanta as it is anywhere in the country. Couples get tired of arguing about the bills or financial priorities and finally decide to split.

But the decision to divorce is in many ways only the beginning, not the end, of money issues. Property division must be done fairly, but it can be tricky in a post-Recession economy in which setting up two households isn't as easy to do as it used to be.

This is especially true for people who have been married awhile and may even be nearing retirement. As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, later-in-life divorce involves significant financial challenges.

For example, a partner who has not taken steps to develop a credit history and be fully informed about the couple's finances could have problems getting credit or managing money after the marriage ends. Not surprisingly, it is still far more often women than men who end up in this situation.

Health insurance coverage is another important consideration. In marriages of long duration, often one party has a work-related policy that also covers a spouse. In the event of divorce, it therefore becomes very important to resolve the issue of insurance coverage for both parties.