Hi, I’m Mitch Reichman. I’m a State Board of Arizona Certified Specialist in Family Law, and I practice at Jaburg and Wilk.
Yes, typically you’ll have to appear in court at least once. Judges in Maricopa County in divorce cases are very proactive, and so they call the parties to appear in front of them early on in the case to assess what their positions are and what other services might be required to help process the case, such as appraisers or custody evaluators. That appearance is not an appearance where you have to testify, but you will typically have to appear at least once in front of the judge.
One of the things that we do in your case is we put orders into place so that there is predictability while your case is proceeding. Those are called temporary orders. Orders for child support, orders for spousal maintenance, who gets possession of the house, how the bills get paid, these things need to be done in an orderly way, and we like to have court orders so that we are able to enforce people’s obligations during the process. That would typically require a hearing of some kind, and at that hearing, you would have to testify. That does not necessarily mean that you’ll have to testify for a long time, or that you would have to testify in a trial. It is possible to complete your divorce without having a trial. In fact, we prefer that our clients complete their divorces without having trial, because trial is the most unpredictable way to resolve your divorce. There are a number of different alternatives, all of which we will explore. One is mediation. Another is arbitration, which is essentially hiring a private judge to make the decisions in your case. We can also ask our judge to appoint someone – called a Family Law Master – to essentially take the place of the judge, and have hearings, and make recommendations in terms of findings. So there are a lot of different ways to settle your case or resolve it without having to go to trial.
Hi, I’m Mitch Reichman. I’m a State Board of Arizona Certified Specialist in Family Law, and I practice at Jaburg and Wilk.
Yes, typically you’ll have to appear in court at least once. Judges in Maricopa County in divorce cases are very proactive, and so they call the parties to appear in front of them early on in the case to assess what their positions are and what other services might be required to help process the case, such as appraisers or custody evaluators. That appearance is not an appearance where you have to testify, but you will typically have to appear at least once in front of the judge.
One of the things that we do in your case is we put orders into place so that there is predictability while your case is proceeding. Those are called temporary orders. Orders for child support, orders for spousal maintenance, who gets possession of the house, how the bills get paid, these things need to be done in an orderly way, and we like to have court orders so that we are able to enforce people’s obligations during the process. That would typically require a hearing of some kind, and at that hearing, you would have to testify. That does not necessarily mean that you’ll have to testify for a long time, or that you would have to testify in a trial. It is possible to complete your divorce without having a trial. In fact, we prefer that our clients complete their divorces without having trial, because trial is the most unpredictable way to resolve your divorce. There are a number of different alternatives, all of which we will explore. One is mediation. Another is arbitration, which is essentially hiring a private judge to make the decisions in your case. We can also ask our judge to appoint someone – called a Family Law Master – to essentially take the place of the judge, and have hearings, and make recommendations in terms of findings. So there are a lot of different ways to settle your case or resolve it without having to go to trial.
Alimony, which is called spousal maintenance in Arizona, is determined by the factors outlined in Arizona revised statute title 25, section 319, subsection A and subsection B. The court first looks at the threshold criteria in subsection A.
The court will determine if a spouse is eligible for spousal maintenance after considering the following factors;
If the court determines the spouse is eligible to receive spousal maintenance, under subsection A, then the court will consider the amount and duration under the thirteen statutory factors in subsection B.
If you call me at Warner Angle, (602) 264-7101, I’ll be glad to schedule a complimentary consultation to discuss your ability to receive spousal maintenance. I look forward to meeting with you soon.
Alimony, which is called spousal maintenance in Arizona, is determined by the factors outlined in Arizona revised statute title 25, section 319, subsection A and subsection B. The court first looks at the threshold criteria in subsection A.
The court will determine if a spouse is eligible for spousal maintenance after considering the following factors;
If the court determines the spouse is eligible to receive spousal maintenance, under subsection A, then the court will consider the amount and duration under the thirteen statutory factors in subsection B.
If you call me at Warner Angle, (602) 264-7101, I’ll be glad to schedule a complimentary consultation to discuss your ability to receive spousal maintenance. I look forward to meeting with you soon.
A very common question we receive is, how long will it take to finalize my divorce case. In Arizona, the short answer is that it has to take at least (61) days. By statute, the court cannot grant a divorce until 60 days after the case has been filed, and the other person has been served, or notified of the case, and so especially in simple cases where the parties can reach an agreement, we can often finalize those cases in (60) to (90) days.
With more complicated cases, especially those cases where we have to gather documents, and we have to gather evidence, and we have to prepare witnesses, and we have to prepare for trial, those cases can take (4) to (6) months and even in certain cases, up to a year. Now, if you’d like more information about your divorce case, please contact us (480) 733-6800, or you can visit us online.
If you are looking to finalize a divorce case in Arizona, please visit a profile and complete a contact form.
A very common question we receive is, how long will it take to finalize my divorce case. In Arizona, the short answer is that it has to take at least (61) days. By statute, the court cannot grant a divorce until 60 days after the case has been filed, and the other person has been served, or notified of the case, and so especially in simple cases where the parties can reach an agreement, we can often finalize those cases in (60) to (90) days.
With more complicated cases, especially those cases where we have to gather documents, and we have to gather evidence, and we have to prepare witnesses, and we have to prepare for trial, those cases can take (4) to (6) months and even in certain cases, up to a year. Now, if you’d like more information about your divorce case, please contact us (480) 733-6800, or you can visit us online.
If you are looking to finalize a divorce case in Arizona, please visit a profile and complete a contact form.
I’m Kathi Sandweiss. I’m the Chair of the appellate practice section at Jaburg and Wilk.
You can appeal basically any final judgement, and that means you can appeal a dissolution, but it’s not as if you’re no longer divorced. You’re not appealing the fact of the divorce. What you’re appealing typically is about money. It can be about something else, but typically somebody will appeal a distribution of property, for example. And a lot of times that will go back to what the lower court determined was the value, for example, of a business. And the value of that business will then impact how your property is distributed.
One of the basic errors that someone alleges in the divorce decree, in the dissolution decree is that a business was not valued properly. So, that goes back to a dueling expert standard. My expert witness, say, valued my art practice at $300,000. Your expert witness valued my business at $500,000, and that’ll determine a lot of how much money is distributed to each party. The problem with it is you’re looking at credibility of witnesses, and you don’t want to be in the position of asking the higher court to determine that there was a factual error because that’s a much tougher standard on appeal.
By: Kathi Sandweiss
I’m Kathi Sandweiss. I’m the Chair of the appellate practice section at Jaburg and Wilk.
You can appeal basically any final judgement, and that means you can appeal a dissolution, but it’s not as if you’re no longer divorced. You’re not appealing the fact of the divorce. What you’re appealing typically is about money. It can be about something else, but typically somebody will appeal a distribution of property, for example. And a lot of times that will go back to what the lower court determined was the value, for example, of a business. And the value of that business will then impact how your property is distributed.
One of the basic errors that someone alleges in the divorce decree, in the dissolution decree is that a business was not valued properly. So, that goes back to a dueling expert standard. My expert witness, say, valued my art practice at $300,000. Your expert witness valued my business at $500,000, and that’ll determine a lot of how much money is distributed to each party. The problem with it is you’re looking at credibility of witnesses, and you don’t want to be in the position of asking the higher court to determine that there was a factual error because that’s a much tougher standard on appeal.
By: Kathi Sandweiss
Hi, I’m Mitch Reichman. I’m a board certified family law specialist and I practice at Jaburg and Wilk.
The way a client can make the most of their first meeting with me is to be organized and to bring me basic general information. So I want a simple statement of their assets and their liabilities. I’d like to see the most recent three years of tax returns. And I recommend the client bring notes. At least bullet points of the topics the client would like to cover in that first meeting.
I don’t ask them to bring a lot of documents to the first meeting. We’re going to follow up and gather a lot of documents during the process. Certainly I would not want the to bring a box of records to the meeting. It would be very inefficient, very expensive for the client for me to be thumbing through a box of records in that first meeting.
We’re looking for broad strokes of information. We want to identify in that first meeting what the assets are and what the liabilities are. To find out about their children. To know about income and expenses. To see if someone is going to be needing spousal maintenance for example. So just broadly identify the topics we’re going to need to address. We’re going to gather a lot of details along the way, but that wouldn’t be a useful way to spend our time the first meeting.
Hi, I’m Mitch Reichman. I’m a board certified family law specialist and I practice at Jaburg and Wilk.
The way a client can make the most of their first meeting with me is to be organized and to bring me basic general information. So I want a simple statement of their assets and their liabilities. I’d like to see the most recent three years of tax returns. And I recommend the client bring notes. At least bullet points of the topics the client would like to cover in that first meeting.
I don’t ask them to bring a lot of documents to the first meeting. We’re going to follow up and gather a lot of documents during the process. Certainly I would not want the to bring a box of records to the meeting. It would be very inefficient, very expensive for the client for me to be thumbing through a box of records in that first meeting.
We’re looking for broad strokes of information. We want to identify in that first meeting what the assets are and what the liabilities are. To find out about their children. To know about income and expenses. To see if someone is going to be needing spousal maintenance for example. So just broadly identify the topics we’re going to need to address. We’re going to gather a lot of details along the way, but that wouldn’t be a useful way to spend our time the first meeting.
Alimony is referred to in Arizona as spousal support or spousal maintenance. The parent that receives alimony must report those payments as taxable income on his or her federal and state tax returns. A spouse that pays alimony must report those payments as a deduction on their federal and state tax returns. However, the parties can agree to treat alimony differently, as far as it’s taxability. They can agree to treat it is part of a property settlement or as part of an equalization. In that instance, there is no reporting of alimony on either party’s tax returns at all. If you have any questions about alimony and the taxability of it, please contact me at Hildebrand Law. The phone number is (480) 305-8300. Thank you.
Alimony is referred to in Arizona as spousal support or spousal maintenance. The parent that receives alimony must report those payments as taxable income on his or her federal and state tax returns. A spouse that pays alimony must report those payments as a deduction on their federal and state tax returns. However, the parties can agree to treat alimony differently, as far as it’s taxability. They can agree to treat it is part of a property settlement or as part of an equalization. In that instance, there is no reporting of alimony on either party’s tax returns at all. If you have any questions about alimony and the taxability of it, please contact me at Hildebrand Law. The phone number is (480) 305-8300. Thank you.
Like other assets, business interests can be treated as community property or separate property and sometimes, a combination of both. If your business was started during the marriage, then it is community property. If your business was started before the date of your marriage, it is your separate property.
However, the marital community may still have a claim to some of the profits and increase in value that occurred during the marriage, and these values must be apportioned between separate property and community property interests. Whether the business is community property or separate property, it will have to be valued.
To do so, it will be necessary to retain a business valuation expert. Whether valuing a community property business or apportioning an increase in value in a sole and separate business it is important that your attorney understand business valuations. Your attorney needs to understand the valuation approaches, methods and procedures and the law that applies to valuing and apportioning business interests. If you are facing a divorce and you or your spouse own a business, feel free to contact me for more information.
Like other assets, business interests can be treated as community property or separate property and sometimes, a combination of both. If your business was started during the marriage, then it is community property. If your business was started before the date of your marriage, it is your separate property.
However, the marital community may still have a claim to some of the profits and increase in value that occurred during the marriage, and these values must be apportioned between separate property and community property interests. Whether the business is community property or separate property, it will have to be valued.
To do so, it will be necessary to retain a business valuation expert. Whether valuing a community property business or apportioning an increase in value in a sole and separate business it is important that your attorney understand business valuations. Your attorney needs to understand the valuation approaches, methods and procedures and the law that applies to valuing and apportioning business interests. If you are facing a divorce and you or your spouse own a business, feel free to contact me for more information.
Hi. My name is Larry Hirsch, and I practice exclusively in the domestic relations group at Jaburg & Wilk. Talking about spousal maintenance, the great grey area in Arizona Dissolution of Marriage Law.
Spousal maintenance has no guidelines. It’s one of the keys that anybody has to understand. So, when a client asks me, what am I going to see receiving spousal maintenance, it’s almost impossible to tell them and there’s lots of reasons why but I want to relate a story. I help teach younger attorneys how to put on divorce trials. I remember one time we were doing this we had a panel of judges who came in to sit at our mock trial. We had five judges. We presented the exact same case, of course, to all five judges. All five judges had a different ruling on how much spousal maintenance the spouse was going to get and how long the spousal maintenance term was going to last. I like to tell that story because clients will ask all the time, how much am I going to pay in spousal maintenance? How much am I going to receive in spousal maintenance? The answer is always: “it depends”. That’s why we call it the great grey area.
There are a myriad of factors that play in to not only whether or not one is entitled to spousal maintenance but more specifically how much spousal maintenance one will receive and for how long.
Hi. My name is Larry Hirsch, and I practice exclusively in the domestic relations group at Jaburg & Wilk. Talking about spousal maintenance, the great grey area in Arizona Dissolution of Marriage Law.
Spousal maintenance has no guidelines. It’s one of the keys that anybody has to understand. So, when a client asks me, what am I going to see receiving spousal maintenance, it’s almost impossible to tell them and there’s lots of reasons why but I want to relate a story. I help teach younger attorneys how to put on divorce trials. I remember one time we were doing this we had a panel of judges who came in to sit at our mock trial. We had five judges. We presented the exact same case, of course, to all five judges. All five judges had a different ruling on how much spousal maintenance the spouse was going to get and how long the spousal maintenance term was going to last. I like to tell that story because clients will ask all the time, how much am I going to pay in spousal maintenance? How much am I going to receive in spousal maintenance? The answer is always: “it depends”. That’s why we call it the great grey area.
There are a myriad of factors that play in to not only whether or not one is entitled to spousal maintenance but more specifically how much spousal maintenance one will receive and for how long.
In Arizona, alimony is called spousal maintenance. There are four specific criteria that the court must evaluate in determining whether a spouse is entitled to spousal maintenance, and the central theme is whether the requesting spouse can provide for his or her reasonable needs.
In determining whether a spouse can meet his or her needs, the court can consider that spouse’s sole and separate property, along with any community property that is awarded to that spouse as part of the divorce. If the court determines that one spouse is entitled to spousal maintenance, the court then considers all other relevant factors, including thirteen specific statutory factors to determine the amount and duration of the award.
The factors that potentially relate to separate property include the following: the ability of the paying spouse to meet his or her own needs and still pay something to the other spouse; the comparative financial resources of each spouse; and the ability of the parties to contribute to the future educational costs of their common children. So, separate property can be considered both when determining if a spouse is entitled to spousal maintenance and if so, the amount and duration of the award. If you would like more information, please contact me.
In Arizona, alimony is called spousal maintenance. There are four specific criteria that the court must evaluate in determining whether a spouse is entitled to spousal maintenance, and the central theme is whether the requesting spouse can provide for his or her reasonable needs.
In determining whether a spouse can meet his or her needs, the court can consider that spouse’s sole and separate property, along with any community property that is awarded to that spouse as part of the divorce. If the court determines that one spouse is entitled to spousal maintenance, the court then considers all other relevant factors, including thirteen specific statutory factors to determine the amount and duration of the award.
The factors that potentially relate to separate property include the following: the ability of the paying spouse to meet his or her own needs and still pay something to the other spouse; the comparative financial resources of each spouse; and the ability of the parties to contribute to the future educational costs of their common children. So, separate property can be considered both when determining if a spouse is entitled to spousal maintenance and if so, the amount and duration of the award. If you would like more information, please contact me.
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