Complex Property Division in Georgia Divorce: What You Need to Know

property division in Georgia so property division in Georgia can be a very tricky matter and here’s the reason why in Georgia Equitable division is the way in which courts decide property division but what’s important about that Equitable division is to understand how complex it can be meaning what happens is that parties when they’re married all the assets from when they’re married to when they divorce or when they’re attempting to divorce can be subject to the divorce action now the question that everyone has in their minds is what happens to assets that I brought into the marriage well that’s what makes it more complex because arguments can be made that there are portions of that that should be excluded from the court even looking at meaning if you had a 401k or you had a retirement plan that had $10,000 in it before you got married you would say hey I had at least $10,000 in here before I got married I don’t want that to be subject to property division or Equitable division by the court so arguments would have to be made as to why but also an argument would have to be made for the amount of money that $10,000 would be now it could be that that $10,000 has turned into a million dollars without you ever doing anything to it and to make that determination you want to have an attorney there to help you to make that determination an argument would have to be made that that $10,000 turned into a million and for that argument to be made there would have to be research done and valuations done that would be presented to the court for the court to review and make a determination of or that amount could be given to a jury in Georgia and a jury would make a determination as to what the award would be but hopefully you would have a skilled Advocate fighting for you to make sure that a calculation about division of assets would not include money that was brought into the marriage before the marriage started hopefully you would have an advocate who would say hey make sure that the amount that that asset would be is taken off of the table so that it doesn’t negatively affect my client and so division of assets and how they’re calculated is something that’s very complex in Georgia and you should have an attorney help you through this when parties are married what the courts will do is they will look at all the assets and all the debts Etc of the marriage and what happens is they make a determination of who gets what it would be subject to what’s called Equitable division many times judges will start with 50/50 as being Equitable division of most assets however they will listen to evidence that’s presented to them as to whether or not that calculation should change and so remember judges will hear information and evidence about the parties to make a determination as to what the Equitable division of assets would be and when hearing that information about parties it could change the 50/50 calculation to 7030 80 20 100 5545 you never know and so that’s why it’s best to have an attorney represent you in matters like this here’s an example of a real world 50/50 split what happens is that the court would ask the parties to prepare a marital asset sheet what that marital asset sheet would have is all of the assets listed by name and an amount that they are and all of the debts listed by name and an amount they are that would be subject to 50/50 and the court would literally go down and split it up 50/50 if there’s $100,000 in one account then one party gets 50 the other gets 50 if there’s $177,000 of debt on a credit card then one party gets $88,500 the other party gets $88,500 however there can be arguments made which would change the 50/50 split or determine how the 50-50 split should be done meaning one party may decide they want to take all of the equity in the house and leave the other party of their 401k intax that could be a decision made between the parties that would not allow everything to be split 50/50 so Asset Division can be done by a judge or by a jury in the state of Georgia so many times it’s helpful to have an attorney advocating for a split that would benefit you as the client in Georgia most judges are going to start with a 50-50 division of assets and debts between parties however testimony in Georgia about the parties and by the parties can cause a judge to make a determination as to whether or not a 50/50 split should be done in Georgia you can look at the conduct between the parties meaning how the parties treated each other and what the parties did in their lives to make a determination of 5050 split would not be Equitable for example you can have somebody who was not true to the marriage meaning they did not do anything to help the marriage grow assets they simply just took assets from the marriage and use them that were not in ways beneficial to the marriage at that point a judge could decide well hey you shouldn’t get any of the assets left because you spent your part already or hey I don’t like the way in which you comported yourself in the Merit so I’m not going to give you a 50/50 share those are things judges or juries can make decisions about in a hearing before the court or by the jury