Divorce and Child Custody
How do property division and child custody arrangements typically work in a divorce? In a divorce, the court will often be tasked with dividing marital property—and this can be anything from money in a checking account to wedding rings to the family home. In some cases, the property will be divided up evenly between both spouses. In other situations, it might be split based on factors like who owns the property or who has been responsible for maintaining it. For example: In a state where one spouse owned the home before marriage and the other spouse paid for its upkeep throughout their marriage, the owner could keep all of the home's value or an amount equivalent to the value added by their contributions. Dividing A Marital Property On top of divide up and share marital property, child custody arrangements—or agreements about who will have custody of any children from a given marriage—are also common in a divorce. In some states, judges will look at which parent has historically be...