The How and Why Behind Reimbursement Claims – Part I Most everyone has heard of a reimbursement claim. They may not always enjoy going through the process – which can, at times, be quite convoluted – but they will if it means recouping qualifying expenses on anything from medical bills to insurance claims and even…
Read articleSummary of Common Family Law Terms (Vol. VII) We have discussed a great deal of family law terms over the last few years. And like we periodically do as part of this ongoing blog series, we’d like to take a brief timeout to look back on a some of the more noteworthy concepts from the…
Read articleDecision Time: 2 Ways A Court Divides Community Qualified Private Retirement Benefits Now that the court hearing your divorce case has been presented with all the necessary evidence on the factors it must consider in making a just and right division of your retirement benefits, it’s finally time to determine how those benefits will be…
Read articleCharacterizing Qualified Private Retirement Benefits – As we learned in our previous blog, the type of retirement plan one or both divorcing spouses participates in affects how the benefits associated with that retirement plan will be characterized, valued, and divided once the marriage is over. Dividing property is not always an easy process, and the…
Read articleDefined Benefit vs Defined Contribution Retirement Plans – You’re probably asking yourself, “Why in the world would we write about retirement plans in a family law blog?” Well, when it comes to the just and right division of property between divorcing spouses, the type of plan one or both spouses participate in affects how benefits…
Read articleWhat In The World Is A QDRO? The courts divide and confirm qualified private retirement benefits in much the same way they do marital property or community liabilities. There’s a discovery process followed by detailed characterization and valuation of the benefit plan, which then allows the court to divide everything in a just and right…
Read articleCommunity Liabilities: 2 Methods to Accomplish Just and Right Division – We learned in our previous two blogs what liabilities are and how the court goes about identifying and placing a value on those debts. We also learned each spouses’ role in the process and the factors could influence how a court assigns debt to…
Read article4 Factors Affecting The Division of Community Liabilities – When two people are getting divorced, the process of dividing community debts is treated the same as the court’s overall just and right division of the entire community estate. How that is accomplished, however, can depend on four key factors. First thing’s first: If you didn’t…
Read articleDividing and Confirming Liabilities – Just as a court has the authority to divide and confirm marital property, whether real or personal, it also has the say so in how spouses’ liabilities are divided and disposed of. This article will describe that process. But first, what are liabilities? Liabilities are debts that you owe to…
Read articleSecuring Liens on Personal Property – Part II If you remember from our previous blog, a judge who has ordered you to pay your spouse a large amount of money that you cannot immediately pay can require that you put some of the personal property you still own on the line to collateralize the judgement.…
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