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.
A divorce, an annulment, and a legal separation are all very similar in many respects, so there are a couple of important key differences that you should understand. When asked to enter a divorce, annulment, or a legal separation, the court is required to enter specific orders. If there are children involved, the court is required to make orders as to child support. The court is also required to enter orders explaining which parent is going to have the parenting time with the children and which parent, or both parents are going to have the legal decision-making for the child. Even if there are no children involved, the court is required to enter orders as to spousal support. Also, the court is required to enter orders dividing up the assets and debt of the parties. In those respects, a divorce, an annulment, and a legal separation are all very similar.
Now, the differences are also important to understand. In a divorce, the judge is essentially saying, “I now pronounce the parties no longer man and wife”. With an annulment, the judge is saying, “We’re going to pretend that you guys were never really married”. With a legal separation, the parties actually remain married, but the court has divided up all the assets and debts. In a legal separation case, if the parties are able to reconcile the marriage, the court can remove the legal separation, and they are back to being married. If you would like more information, please contact me at (480) 733-6800, or you can visit us online.
For additional information on divorce, annulment and legal separation in Arizona, please visit a profile and complete a contact form.
A divorce, an annulment, and a legal separation are all very similar in many respects, so there are a couple of important key differences that you should understand. When asked to enter a divorce, annulment, or a legal separation, the court is required to enter specific orders. If there are children involved, the court is required to make orders as to child support. The court is also required to enter orders explaining which parent is going to have the parenting time with the children and which parent, or both parents are going to have the legal decision-making for the child. Even if there are no children involved, the court is required to enter orders as to spousal support. Also, the court is required to enter orders dividing up the assets and debt of the parties. In those respects, a divorce, an annulment, and a legal separation are all very similar.
Now, the differences are also important to understand. In a divorce, the judge is essentially saying, “I now pronounce the parties no longer man and wife”. With an annulment, the judge is saying, “We’re going to pretend that you guys were never really married”. With a legal separation, the parties actually remain married, but the court has divided up all the assets and debts. In a legal separation case, if the parties are able to reconcile the marriage, the court can remove the legal separation, and they are back to being married. If you would like more information, please contact me at (480) 733-6800, or you can visit us online.
For additional information on divorce, annulment and legal separation in Arizona, please visit a profile and complete a contact form.
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.
In most circumstances, you can’t keep your spouse’s health insurance after a divorce. You can, however, convert your spouse’s health insurance to your own plan under HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Most people know this as COBRA. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to keep your insurance for another (36) thirty-six months. Unfortunately, it’s also very expensive. For details, contact me, Greg Davis, at (602) 279-1900.
By: Greg Davis
In most circumstances, you can’t keep your spouse’s health insurance after a divorce. You can, however, convert your spouse’s health insurance to your own plan under HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Most people know this as COBRA. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to keep your insurance for another (36) thirty-six months. Unfortunately, it’s also very expensive. For details, contact me, Greg Davis, at (602) 279-1900.
By: Greg Davis
In Arizona, all property acquired during the marriage is presumed to be community property, while all property owned prior to the marriage is the sole and separate property of that spouse. In a divorce, the court must allocate the separate property to the appropriate spouse and equitably divide all of the community property between both spouses.
If your retirement account was earned entirely during the marriage, then it is presumed to be community property and will be divided equitably, which basically means equally, if your retirement account was earned partially before marriage and partially during the marriage, then it has both a separate property and community property component. The division of these mixed accounts is much more difficult and often requires an expert, such a financial analyst or CPA, to calculate the separate and community portions of the account.
To implement the division of certain retirement accounts, a qualified domestic relations order, or a QDRO, may be required. Division of retirement accounts can be confusing and complicated, and it is recommended that you seek advice from an experienced attorney if these issues are present in your divorce case. If you would like more information, please contact me.
In Arizona, all property acquired during the marriage is presumed to be community property, while all property owned prior to the marriage is the sole and separate property of that spouse. In a divorce, the court must allocate the separate property to the appropriate spouse and equitably divide all of the community property between both spouses.
If your retirement account was earned entirely during the marriage, then it is presumed to be community property and will be divided equitably, which basically means equally, if your retirement account was earned partially before marriage and partially during the marriage, then it has both a separate property and community property component. The division of these mixed accounts is much more difficult and often requires an expert, such a financial analyst or CPA, to calculate the separate and community portions of the account.
To implement the division of certain retirement accounts, a qualified domestic relations order, or a QDRO, may be required. Division of retirement accounts can be confusing and complicated, and it is recommended that you seek advice from an experienced attorney if these issues are present in your divorce case. If you would like more information, please contact me.
Hi. I’m Mitch Reichman. I’m a board certified family law specialist, and I practice at Jaburg & Wilk.
Community property in Arizona is- it creates a presumption that everything that’s acquired during the marriage by either spouse is owned by the community. It means it’s owned by them jointly. They each have an undivided 100% interest in all of the community property.
If you put money into a business and started the business before marriage, the character of your assets doesn’t change by virtue of you getting married. So if you come into the marriage with a business that’s a growing concern, that business is your separate property. The difficulty is if you are working in the business and the business increases in value during the marriage. How to apportion the increase in value between what the business was in terms of it’s value and earning potential at the time of the marriage, at which time it was your separate property, and how it’s changed during the course of the marriage. Those are very difficult questions to answer, and require typically experts to do that kind of evaluation.
There is a relatively easy way to protect your business or any other separate property before you get married. And that is to have a premarital agreement. Premarital agreements are presumptively enforceable in the state of Arizona. We have adopted something called the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act. And under the Act, as long as you follow certain guidelines, there is a very strong probability that the court will enforce that agreement.
They need to be prepared for a forensic evaluation of their business. Someone is going to be looking at all of the personal benefits they get from the business, and attempting to quantify them. They’re going to be looking for any unusual transactions, they’re going to be looking for any unusual activity in the business that suggest that somebody might be divorce planning. And so what you want to do, is you want to operate as you always have to the extent that you can, and if there is some event or occurrence that causes you to need to do something special, you want to document it as best you can.
Hi. I’m Mitch Reichman. I’m a board certified family law specialist, and I practice at Jaburg & Wilk.
Community property in Arizona is- it creates a presumption that everything that’s acquired during the marriage by either spouse is owned by the community. It means it’s owned by them jointly. They each have an undivided 100% interest in all of the community property.
If you put money into a business and started the business before marriage, the character of your assets doesn’t change by virtue of you getting married. So if you come into the marriage with a business that’s a growing concern, that business is your separate property. The difficulty is if you are working in the business and the business increases in value during the marriage. How to apportion the increase in value between what the business was in terms of it’s value and earning potential at the time of the marriage, at which time it was your separate property, and how it’s changed during the course of the marriage. Those are very difficult questions to answer, and require typically experts to do that kind of evaluation.
There is a relatively easy way to protect your business or any other separate property before you get married. And that is to have a premarital agreement. Premarital agreements are presumptively enforceable in the state of Arizona. We have adopted something called the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act. And under the Act, as long as you follow certain guidelines, there is a very strong probability that the court will enforce that agreement.
They need to be prepared for a forensic evaluation of their business. Someone is going to be looking at all of the personal benefits they get from the business, and attempting to quantify them. They’re going to be looking for any unusual transactions, they’re going to be looking for any unusual activity in the business that suggest that somebody might be divorce planning. And so what you want to do, is you want to operate as you always have to the extent that you can, and if there is some event or occurrence that causes you to need to do something special, you want to document it as best you can.
It is a general rule that an Arizona court must equitably divide all of the spouses community property and debts, without regard to marital misconduct when it enters its final decree of dissolution of marriage. The term equitable is a concept of fairness, depending upon the facts of a particular case.
Consistent with this fairness concept, the court may not order the sale of a community marital residence during the pendency of a divorce proceeding absent an agreement of spouses, a separately filed and consolidated partition action, or circumstances which demonstrate that the residence is at risk of being foreclosed, and neither spouse has the ability to void the foreclosure to preserve existing equity in the residence.
An equitable division of community property is not necessarily or presumptively an equal division of community property. Having said that, an equal division of community property and debts by a court in a divorce proceeding generally will be the most equitable result. However, there sometimes are circumstances that exist which lead a court to unequally divide community assets or debts because the judge determines it is equitable or fair to do so. The court may consider excessive or abnormal expenditures by a spouse, such as those to support gambling habits or drug addiction during marriage, for example.
The court also may consider a spouse’s destruction, concealment, or fraudulent disposition of community, joint, or common property in it’s division of community assets and debts. These particular matters often are referred to as waste, and can result in the court making an unequal division of community assets or debts.
By: Kevin Park
It is a general rule that an Arizona court must equitably divide all of the spouses community property and debts, without regard to marital misconduct when it enters its final decree of dissolution of marriage. The term equitable is a concept of fairness, depending upon the facts of a particular case.
Consistent with this fairness concept, the court may not order the sale of a community marital residence during the pendency of a divorce proceeding absent an agreement of spouses, a separately filed and consolidated partition action, or circumstances which demonstrate that the residence is at risk of being foreclosed, and neither spouse has the ability to void the foreclosure to preserve existing equity in the residence.
An equitable division of community property is not necessarily or presumptively an equal division of community property. Having said that, an equal division of community property and debts by a court in a divorce proceeding generally will be the most equitable result. However, there sometimes are circumstances that exist which lead a court to unequally divide community assets or debts because the judge determines it is equitable or fair to do so. The court may consider excessive or abnormal expenditures by a spouse, such as those to support gambling habits or drug addiction during marriage, for example.
The court also may consider a spouse’s destruction, concealment, or fraudulent disposition of community, joint, or common property in it’s division of community assets and debts. These particular matters often are referred to as waste, and can result in the court making an unequal division of community assets or debts.
By: Kevin Park
In Arizona, we have a procedure called a petition for temporary orders. A temporary orders petition asks the court to award spousal maintenance, child support and, or parenting time and decision making authority, with respect to children while the divorce is going on. For more information, contact me, Greg Davis at Davis Limited, (602) 279-1900.
By: Greg Davis
In Arizona, we have a procedure called a petition for temporary orders. A temporary orders petition asks the court to award spousal maintenance, child support and, or parenting time and decision making authority, with respect to children while the divorce is going on. For more information, contact me, Greg Davis at Davis Limited, (602) 279-1900.
By: Greg Davis
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