Hi. My name is Mitchell Reichman. I’m a board certified specialist in family law and chair of the family law department at Jaburg & Wilk. Opting out is choosing to resolve a family law dispute outside the traditional judicial system. One of the ways parties can choose to opt out is by choosing to arbitrate.
Arbitration is a voluntary process. It’s beyond the jurisdiction of a judge to order parties to arbitrate. However, once parties do decide to arbitrate, a court order will be entered that appoints the arbitrator and governs the process. Generally in Arizona, arbitrations are governed by a set of statutes known as Arizona’s Arbitration Act. One of the advantages of arbitration is that the parties can choose the neutral that serves as the arbitrator based on the parties’ circumstances, particularly where the issues are specialized such as with the valuation of a business or professional practice. The parties can chose an arbitrator who has a greater amount of education, training, and experience than the judge randomly assigned to their case. This gives the parties the opportunity to obtain a more predictable outcome because the arbitrator is familiar with the issues that will be presented in a valuation analysis, and the judge might not be. An important difference between choosing to arbitrate a dispute as compared to a trial concerns the right to appeal.
Under Arizona’s Arbitration Act, people who choose to arbitrate have very limited rights to appeal the decision of the arbitrator. This is very dissimilar from their rights to appeal should a judge make the decision after a trial on the merits. Overall, however, in many cases we find that by choosing to opt out through a process of arbitration, we’re able to reach our goal of helping our clients obtain a more favorable result in their family law proceeding.
Hi. My name is Mitchell Reichman. I’m a board certified specialist in family law and chair of the family law department at Jaburg & Wilk. Opting out is choosing to resolve a family law dispute outside the traditional judicial system. One of the ways parties can choose to opt out is by choosing to arbitrate.
Arbitration is a voluntary process. It’s beyond the jurisdiction of a judge to order parties to arbitrate. However, once parties do decide to arbitrate, a court order will be entered that appoints the arbitrator and governs the process. Generally in Arizona, arbitrations are governed by a set of statutes known as Arizona’s Arbitration Act. One of the advantages of arbitration is that the parties can choose the neutral that serves as the arbitrator based on the parties’ circumstances, particularly where the issues are specialized such as with the valuation of a business or professional practice. The parties can chose an arbitrator who has a greater amount of education, training, and experience than the judge randomly assigned to their case. This gives the parties the opportunity to obtain a more predictable outcome because the arbitrator is familiar with the issues that will be presented in a valuation analysis, and the judge might not be. An important difference between choosing to arbitrate a dispute as compared to a trial concerns the right to appeal.
Under Arizona’s Arbitration Act, people who choose to arbitrate have very limited rights to appeal the decision of the arbitrator. This is very dissimilar from their rights to appeal should a judge make the decision after a trial on the merits. Overall, however, in many cases we find that by choosing to opt out through a process of arbitration, we’re able to reach our goal of helping our clients obtain a more favorable result in their family law proceeding.
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 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.
Hi. My name is Larry Hirsch, and I practise exclusively in the domestic relations group at Jaburg & Wilk. First and foremost, the court doesn’t care about the affair that your spouse had. Our courts are not in the business of making moral judgments, i.e. who slept with who, when they slept with who. More often than not, an affair during the marriage does not come into play during your divorce proceeding.
There are two occasions where an affair can actually have an impact on your case. The first one is when there was waste, that’s also called dissipation. For example, let’s just call it “Husband” for the time being, and Husband was having an affair for the better part of two years during the marriage, and during that affair, Husband was buying his paramour, or his girlfriend, fur coats, diamond rings, taking her on lavish vacations, maybe he helped pay a car. Well, in this situation, where the community income or the earnings of Husband was community, that would be considered community waste, so we’re going to want to take a look at all the bank statements, all the credit card statements, and we are going to take a detailed review as to all of the money that the spouse who is having the affair spent on that other individual. Now, the spouse who is not having the affair is entitled to one half reimbursement of those funds that was spent by the spouse who is having an affair. So, to make it really simplistic, if during the marriage Husband had a paramour, and he bought her a diamond ring valued at $10,000, and we can prove and show the receipt – and possibly even the ring – then the spouse who did not spend that money is entitled to reimbursement of $5000 in that situation.
The other situation where an affair may come into play is if the two parties are unfortunately fighting for custody of the minor children or the minor child. And it doesn’t really come into play that mom or dad was having an affair, but the issue really becomes the judgement of that parent when they were having the affair, so if mom or dad was simply dating somebody else, the court’s not really going to view it as that big of a deal. On the other hand, if, let’s say, mom was going out seven nights a week when she should have been at home doing the children’s homework, if dad was out spending thousands of dollars on vacations for his girlfriend while his children couldn’t afford books at school, the court’s going to look at those types of judgement calls, and it may come into play during a custodial fight in a divorce.
Hi. My name is Larry Hirsch, and I practise exclusively in the domestic relations group at Jaburg & Wilk. First and foremost, the court doesn’t care about the affair that your spouse had. Our courts are not in the business of making moral judgments, i.e. who slept with who, when they slept with who. More often than not, an affair during the marriage does not come into play during your divorce proceeding.
There are two occasions where an affair can actually have an impact on your case. The first one is when there was waste, that’s also called dissipation. For example, let’s just call it “Husband” for the time being, and Husband was having an affair for the better part of two years during the marriage, and during that affair, Husband was buying his paramour, or his girlfriend, fur coats, diamond rings, taking her on lavish vacations, maybe he helped pay a car. Well, in this situation, where the community income or the earnings of Husband was community, that would be considered community waste, so we’re going to want to take a look at all the bank statements, all the credit card statements, and we are going to take a detailed review as to all of the money that the spouse who is having the affair spent on that other individual. Now, the spouse who is not having the affair is entitled to one half reimbursement of those funds that was spent by the spouse who is having an affair. So, to make it really simplistic, if during the marriage Husband had a paramour, and he bought her a diamond ring valued at $10,000, and we can prove and show the receipt – and possibly even the ring – then the spouse who did not spend that money is entitled to reimbursement of $5000 in that situation.
The other situation where an affair may come into play is if the two parties are unfortunately fighting for custody of the minor children or the minor child. And it doesn’t really come into play that mom or dad was having an affair, but the issue really becomes the judgement of that parent when they were having the affair, so if mom or dad was simply dating somebody else, the court’s not really going to view it as that big of a deal. On the other hand, if, let’s say, mom was going out seven nights a week when she should have been at home doing the children’s homework, if dad was out spending thousands of dollars on vacations for his girlfriend while his children couldn’t afford books at school, the court’s going to look at those types of judgement calls, and it may come into play during a custodial fight in a divorce.
There are two basic ways we can help our clients to resolve any divorce case. One is through settlement, and the other is by going to trial. Trial has certain advantages in that you can present your evidence to a judge who is a neutral person and that judge can enter orders that that judge thinks is appropriate, but there are a lot of costs associated with going to trial including the financial cost, but also the emotional cost, and the sleepless nights, and waiting to get ready for trial.
Most clients prefer to be able to resolve their case through settlement. Sometimes settlement is the parties talking among themselves and then I, as the attorney, simply draw up that agreement. Sometimes we do an informal settlement where we talk to both parties and the attorneys involved in that. If necessary, we can bring in a professional mediator to help the parties be able to reach an agreement.
Parties are generally much more pleased with an agreement that they’ve been able to negotiate, that they’ve been able to participate in, and reach. And also, the other party is more likely to fall through and comply with an agreement that he or she has negotiated.
Now if you would like more information regarding trial, or mediation, or your divorce case, contact us at (480) 733-6800, or you can visit us online. If you have more questions on settlement and litigation in a divorce case in Arizona, please contact a lawyer in your area.
There are two basic ways we can help our clients to resolve any divorce case. One is through settlement, and the other is by going to trial. Trial has certain advantages in that you can present your evidence to a judge who is a neutral person and that judge can enter orders that that judge thinks is appropriate, but there are a lot of costs associated with going to trial including the financial cost, but also the emotional cost, and the sleepless nights, and waiting to get ready for trial.
Most clients prefer to be able to resolve their case through settlement. Sometimes settlement is the parties talking among themselves and then I, as the attorney, simply draw up that agreement. Sometimes we do an informal settlement where we talk to both parties and the attorneys involved in that. If necessary, we can bring in a professional mediator to help the parties be able to reach an agreement.
Parties are generally much more pleased with an agreement that they’ve been able to negotiate, that they’ve been able to participate in, and reach. And also, the other party is more likely to fall through and comply with an agreement that he or she has negotiated.
Now if you would like more information regarding trial, or mediation, or your divorce case, contact us at (480) 733-6800, or you can visit us online. If you have more questions on settlement and litigation in a divorce case in Arizona, please contact a lawyer in your area.
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.
Legal separation can take a number of months. It can actually take longer than that, but the minimum time in Arizona is sixty days, which is the exact same as a divorce. So, if you were hoping for a quicker disposition of your legal separation, unfortunately you are not able to do that any faster than you would a divorce. But, that’s not the only reason to consider a legal separation. Each case is different. Each case is unique and we’d love the opportunity to talk about that with you. If you’d like more information, contact me.
Legal separation can take a number of months. It can actually take longer than that, but the minimum time in Arizona is sixty days, which is the exact same as a divorce. So, if you were hoping for a quicker disposition of your legal separation, unfortunately you are not able to do that any faster than you would a divorce. But, that’s not the only reason to consider a legal separation. Each case is different. Each case is unique and we’d love the opportunity to talk about that with you. If you’d like more information, contact me.
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.
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
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