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.
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
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. My name is Larry Hirsch, and I practice exclusively in the domestic relations group at Jaburg & Wilk. Parenting coordinators are appointed by the court, and the main thing that they do is help parents make decisions when the parents can’t agree. Look, the parties are getting divorced. Clearly they’re not seeing eye to eye on everything, and more often than not they don’t see eye to eye on parental decisions, nor can they make even the most simplistic agreements on their own. And so a lot of times somebody needs some help, and that’s where parenting coordinators come into play.
Parenting coordinators are often either other family lawyers who are well-versed in custodial litigation, or they’re mental health professionals or medical doctors.
What kinds of issues are appropriate for what we call a PC to oversee? They’re issues like school, vacations, the change of a parenting day, the right of first refusal, babysitters, caregivers, even medical arrangements, medical decisions, which doctors they’re going to see. In other words, these are often things that people shouldn’t be litigating about. They shouldn’t be spending $10,000 on the issue of should I be picking up the kid at 3:15 on Thursday or 3 o’clock on Thursday? So that’s where parenting coordinators come into play – highly beneficial for the parties, saves a ton of money, also helps everybody’s mental health because things are handled quickly by the parenting coordinator.
Now, what are parenting coordinators not for? The main thing that a parenting coordinator is not for is making decisions with regard to decision-making authority or custody. In other words, if you are already divorced and you want to change your custodial access schedule – let’s say it’s week on/week off – and you don’t think father should be seeing the children that much any longer, the parenting coordinator is not the right person to go to for that. Unfortunately, the court is.
By: Laurence Hirsch
Hi. My name is Larry Hirsch, and I practice exclusively in the domestic relations group at Jaburg & Wilk. Parenting coordinators are appointed by the court, and the main thing that they do is help parents make decisions when the parents can’t agree. Look, the parties are getting divorced. Clearly they’re not seeing eye to eye on everything, and more often than not they don’t see eye to eye on parental decisions, nor can they make even the most simplistic agreements on their own. And so a lot of times somebody needs some help, and that’s where parenting coordinators come into play.
Parenting coordinators are often either other family lawyers who are well-versed in custodial litigation, or they’re mental health professionals or medical doctors.
What kinds of issues are appropriate for what we call a PC to oversee? They’re issues like school, vacations, the change of a parenting day, the right of first refusal, babysitters, caregivers, even medical arrangements, medical decisions, which doctors they’re going to see. In other words, these are often things that people shouldn’t be litigating about. They shouldn’t be spending $10,000 on the issue of should I be picking up the kid at 3:15 on Thursday or 3 o’clock on Thursday? So that’s where parenting coordinators come into play – highly beneficial for the parties, saves a ton of money, also helps everybody’s mental health because things are handled quickly by the parenting coordinator.
Now, what are parenting coordinators not for? The main thing that a parenting coordinator is not for is making decisions with regard to decision-making authority or custody. In other words, if you are already divorced and you want to change your custodial access schedule – let’s say it’s week on/week off – and you don’t think father should be seeing the children that much any longer, the parenting coordinator is not the right person to go to for that. Unfortunately, the court is.
By: Laurence Hirsch
A judge can decide a number of things in your divorce case. Most commonly, the judge will divide your assets, the judge will divide your debts, and if you have common children with your spouse, the judge will award child support to the custodial parents or outline parenting time in the parenting plan, but each case is different so you’ll need an attorney that will be able to identify all of your legal issues and make sure that they make it into the decree either by consent or through trial. If you’d like to discuss your divorce case with me, feel free to email me.
A judge can decide a number of things in your divorce case. Most commonly, the judge will divide your assets, the judge will divide your debts, and if you have common children with your spouse, the judge will award child support to the custodial parents or outline parenting time in the parenting plan, but each case is different so you’ll need an attorney that will be able to identify all of your legal issues and make sure that they make it into the decree either by consent or through trial. If you’d like to discuss your divorce case with me, feel free to email me.
In Arizona, property is characterized as community or separate property, as well as joint or common property. The legal characterization of your property may have a significant impact on the course decisions regarding possession, management, or control of the property, as well as division or disposition of the property.
The term property generally refers to all forms or real and personal property including but not limited to: real estate, including homes and undeveloped land, bank and other financial accounts, IRAs, 401(k)s, pension plans and other retirement accounts, stock options, vehicles, and other personal property items. Here’s how community and separate property rights are defined by statute. Community property generally describes all property acquired by either spouse during the party’s marriage.
Typically, it does not matter whether the property’s titled in one or both spouses’ names, so long as the property was acquired by either spouse during the marriage. The most significant exceptions to this general community property rule pertain to property acquired by gift to a particular spouse or through a spouse’s inheritance during marriage. Spouses generally have equal management, control, and disposition rights over their community property.
Separate property generally describes a spouse’s property which is owned by that spouse before marriage or is acquired during marriage by gift or inheritance, and also includes the increase, rents, issues, and profits of that property. In addition, property which is acquired by a spouse after severance of a petition for dissolution of marriage, legal separation, or annulment is also the separate property of that spouse, if the petition results in a decree of dissolution of marriage, legal separation or annulment. Each spouse generally has the sole management, control, and disposition rights of each spouse’s separate property.
By: Kevin Park
In Arizona, property is characterized as community or separate property, as well as joint or common property. The legal characterization of your property may have a significant impact on the course decisions regarding possession, management, or control of the property, as well as division or disposition of the property.
The term property generally refers to all forms or real and personal property including but not limited to: real estate, including homes and undeveloped land, bank and other financial accounts, IRAs, 401(k)s, pension plans and other retirement accounts, stock options, vehicles, and other personal property items. Here’s how community and separate property rights are defined by statute. Community property generally describes all property acquired by either spouse during the party’s marriage.
Typically, it does not matter whether the property’s titled in one or both spouses’ names, so long as the property was acquired by either spouse during the marriage. The most significant exceptions to this general community property rule pertain to property acquired by gift to a particular spouse or through a spouse’s inheritance during marriage. Spouses generally have equal management, control, and disposition rights over their community property.
Separate property generally describes a spouse’s property which is owned by that spouse before marriage or is acquired during marriage by gift or inheritance, and also includes the increase, rents, issues, and profits of that property. In addition, property which is acquired by a spouse after severance of a petition for dissolution of marriage, legal separation, or annulment is also the separate property of that spouse, if the petition results in a decree of dissolution of marriage, legal separation or annulment. Each spouse generally has the sole management, control, and disposition rights of each spouse’s separate property.
By: Kevin Park
Hi. My name is Larry Hirsch, and I practice exclusively in the domestic relations group at Jaburg & Wilk. Arizona has a case called [?], and that case has allowed the spouse that doesn’t own the business to actually have an interest in the appreciation and value of that business during the course of the marriage. What we’re looking at is labor, toil, and efforts of the community. Best way to think about this is, if I have a sole and separate business and I’m actually doing something to help that business, my spouse may have a claim to my sole and separate property.
This same situation can occur with separate property homes. So let’s say that you get married, and you have a house that’s worth $500,000. Your community earnings bought the new pool, the new landscaping, and put in the addition, and when you file for divorce that house is worth $1.5 million, so you’ve got $1,000,000 of appreciation during the marriage. Is it fair that the spouse who owned the house coming into the marriage receives all $1,000,000 of appreciation? The courts in Arizona don’t typically think so. So those are two situations where your sole and separate property is not necessarily 100% your sole and separate property. Always be wary that there may be what we call a community lien on your separate property.
Hi. My name is Larry Hirsch, and I practice exclusively in the domestic relations group at Jaburg & Wilk. Arizona has a case called [?], and that case has allowed the spouse that doesn’t own the business to actually have an interest in the appreciation and value of that business during the course of the marriage. What we’re looking at is labor, toil, and efforts of the community. Best way to think about this is, if I have a sole and separate business and I’m actually doing something to help that business, my spouse may have a claim to my sole and separate property.
This same situation can occur with separate property homes. So let’s say that you get married, and you have a house that’s worth $500,000. Your community earnings bought the new pool, the new landscaping, and put in the addition, and when you file for divorce that house is worth $1.5 million, so you’ve got $1,000,000 of appreciation during the marriage. Is it fair that the spouse who owned the house coming into the marriage receives all $1,000,000 of appreciation? The courts in Arizona don’t typically think so. So those are two situations where your sole and separate property is not necessarily 100% your sole and separate property. Always be wary that there may be what we call a community lien on your separate property.
Hi. I’m Mitch Reichman. I’m a state board of Arizona certified specialist in family law, and I practice at Jaburg and Wilk.
The amount of time it takes for your divorce to be finale is different in everyone’s case. It’s driven by a number of factors. The first is whether other professionals need to be brought into the case, such as custody evaluators or business appraisers. They are the major factor in terms of how long it will take your divorce to be finale, is whether your case goes to trial. If we resolve your case short of trial, it will typically take less time. If we have to go to trial, then we have to deal with the judge’s calendar. Most judges are setting trails three to six months out, so by the time you know you need to go to trial you might wait another three to six months, and your case might not be resolved for over a year.
The amount of attorney’s fees you incur in your divorce largely depends on the reasonableness of the positions that each party takes during the course of the proceedings. If your case is a high conflict case and where people take unreasonable positions, it will take longer for us to help you through the process, and therefore you incur more in fees. Truly is impossible to predict in the beginning of your case how much you’re going to incur in attorney’s fees, because we don’t know what positions the other side is going to take. As your case develops, as we get information, we’ll at some point have a good idea of how much you’ll incur in fees and be able to predict that for you.
Hi. I’m Mitch Reichman. I’m a state board of Arizona certified specialist in family law, and I practice at Jaburg and Wilk.
The amount of time it takes for your divorce to be finale is different in everyone’s case. It’s driven by a number of factors. The first is whether other professionals need to be brought into the case, such as custody evaluators or business appraisers. They are the major factor in terms of how long it will take your divorce to be finale, is whether your case goes to trial. If we resolve your case short of trial, it will typically take less time. If we have to go to trial, then we have to deal with the judge’s calendar. Most judges are setting trails three to six months out, so by the time you know you need to go to trial you might wait another three to six months, and your case might not be resolved for over a year.
The amount of attorney’s fees you incur in your divorce largely depends on the reasonableness of the positions that each party takes during the course of the proceedings. If your case is a high conflict case and where people take unreasonable positions, it will take longer for us to help you through the process, and therefore you incur more in fees. Truly is impossible to predict in the beginning of your case how much you’re going to incur in attorney’s fees, because we don’t know what positions the other side is going to take. As your case develops, as we get information, we’ll at some point have a good idea of how much you’ll incur in fees and be able to predict that for you.
Arizona Dissolution of Marriage
In divorce, many issues require a resolution. Those issues can be resolved either by you or by the court before you can…
Read MoreA Judge Can Order a Parent to Attend Counseling in Arizona
A Judge Orders a Parent to Attend Domestic Violence Counseling in Arizona Can a judge order a parent in a child custody…
Read More
