As soon as you and your spouse were married, you began to establish a life together. Maybe you went out and bought a new house or a much-needed car. Perhaps you even opened up a joint bank account and got a credit card together. However, no one can foresee the future, and eventually, conflict seeped into the marriage and the foundations decayed. And despite your valiant efforts, divorce became the only avenue towards peace and your only chance at a well-deserved, fulfilling life. Yet, peace does not come easily, and navigating the Orange County family court system is a battle in and of itself. When making this huge decision, one of the first questions that people ask is who gets what in divorce in California? Who gets the house? The car? The debts? Property division in Orange County is one of the most highly disputed and acrimonious areas of separation, and unsurprisingly so. After all, it is stressful to even consider losing many of the assets you worked hard to attain, and you might be worried that you’ll have to start rebuilding your life from the ground up. However, there are steps you can take to protect and fight for your desired property, and you have already taken the first. By looking up property division attorneys in Orange County, you are ensuring that you have an innovative, experienced, and strategic advocate on your side to help you form persuasive arguments and convince your spouse and/or the judge of why you deserve certain possessions. Our team of divorce lawyers has worked throughout courts in Orange County, helping couples through property division from La Habra to Irvine to San Clemente to Huntington Beach and all areas in between. We have learned what it takes to get the best possible results for our clients and will fight furiously for your rights. Of course, our main desire is that you get the help best suited for you, which is why we always offer Free Case Evaluations, so you can see that our lawyers are a good match.
The myths of property division in California are numerous, the biggest one being that all your property will be split 50/50. California is a community property state, which means that all property that you and your spouse acquired after getting married belongs to the both of you and must be divided. This includes everything you attained after the date of marriage, such as physical assets (land, furniture, housing, vehicles, and anything that can be bought or sold) as well as non-physical assets that hold monetary value, such as bank accounts, debts, pensions, insurance policies, businesses, etc. Yet while community property laws in California do state in writing that marital property will be equally split in half between the two of you, this simply cannot happen in reality. After all, there is no gigantic knife that the court will use to slice your house in two, nor will they pick apart your car and divvy up the pieces. Rather, how your property is divided will mostly depend on your ability to negotiate (or, rather, the ability of your attorney). Ideally, this will be done between you and your spouse without the need for an arbitrator to make any decisions for you through deliberation or mediation. The both of you will go over every asset you own, classify it into a separate, community, or commingled property according to the state laws, and decide who will get what after your divorce. You will then draft out an official agreement that the judge will sign off on. However, in highly contested divorces, you and your spouse may need to debate in front of a judge so that he can decide what property goes to you and what goes to your spouse. This situation can be daunting since you must construct a persuasive case as to why you deserve to keep the property you want. During either process, it is in your best interest that you have a property division attorney on your side who is shrewd and tactical, able to spot innovative ways of bargaining for the possessions you hold most dear. Not only does our team have extensive knowledge of property division laws in California, but they are equipped with an understanding of how people operate. Through this awareness, they are able to appeal to the opposite side’s desires in order to gain footing for their own client and settle disputes in their favor.
One of our divorce attorneys will first help you classify all your belongings into the community, separate, commingled, or transmuted property, as determined by specific factors outlined by the state of California. After deconstructing those laws, we will listen to your needs and desires, and advise you on what property you will need to fight vigorously for and what you can use as bargaining chips. We will inform you of any unforeseen consequences your decisions could have on your future, and help you plan out the successful and joyful life you deserve.