Divorce

If the business was started during the marriage and there are no agreements in place altering the ownership or the division of community property and it is deemed community property, it is subject to equal division between the parties. Under Arizona law, it does not matter whether a spouse’s name is on the business because it was started during the marriage, therefore it is part of the community property and needs to be divided as part of the divorce proceeding. There are a few exceptions: Where the business was inherited or gifted to your spouse or where or a prenup or postnup is in place, then the business may not be community property. If the business was started prior to the marriage, most likely, the business will not be divided in the divorce, but the increase in value and/or income received from the business will be equitably divided. 

The quickest timeline for a divorce is a little more than two months, and it requires both parties to be in agreement. That is because of a 60-day waiting period that is put in place under Arizona law. On this timeline, one spouse files the Petition for Dissolution, the paperwork that starts the divorce. Then they serve the other spouse (when things are amicable, this is done by giving your spouse the paperwork and having them sign a notarized document that they received it, and this is then filed with the Court. That service date is important because it starts the sixty-day waiting period. At the end of the waiting period, the two of you can file your Consent Decree (and Parenting Plan, if you have children, and a Property Settlement Agreement, if necessary). These are the documents that divorce you, contain your agreement, and divide your property and decide what happens with your child. Once the papers are signed by the judge, you are divorced. 

How the proceeds from a personal injury case are divided in a divorce will depend on several factors, mainly, the reason the proceeds were awarded.

• Personal injury proceeds that are awarded for bodily injury or pain and suffering, belong 100% to the spouse who was injured and not divisible in divorce.
• Personal injury proceeds that are awarded for damaged property (such as to repair a car) or as a compensation for lost wages, are likely being paid to reimburse you on the loss/damage of community assets; in that case, the proceeds are considered community property and divisible in divorce.

Marital Community

How is community property divided during a divorce?

What is community property in Arizona?

Personal property includes personal items, like your clothes, your wallet, purse, jewelry, furnishings, etc.

Social security is not divisible in an Arizona divorce. The divorce court is a state court, so it cannot divide a federal benefit like Social Security. But if it is a marriage of 10 years or more, the lesser-earning spouse may qualify at retirement age to draw Social Security from the other’s spouse Social Security earnings.

A Preliminary Injunction protects both parties during a pending divorce. It prevents people from taking certain actions to remove property or children from the Court’s jurisdiction. It also prevents certain other actions that spouses sometimes undertake to hurt their spouse in a divorce proceeding.

You and your spouse can agree to divide the property however you want as long as your division is fair. But if a judge divides it, they are going to divide it “equitably.” That means you each get one half of the community property, unless the Court finds such an equal division would be “unfair” to either party.

The marital community starts on the date of marriage and ends on the day the Petition for Dissolution is served, provided the divorce is finalized with that Petition.

The phrase “marital community” describes everything the community owns or owes. (assets and debts)

Community property is any asset or debt either spouse acquired during the marriage. It includes houses, businesses, retirement accounts, stocks, bank accounts, credit card debts, student loans, HELOC’s, intellectual property, etc. The exceptions to community property are any property acquired as an inheritance or as a gift. If a prenup or postnup was signed, the spouses may have opted out of the community property laws altogether. Additionally, certain federal law may prevent state courts from dividing certain assets, such as a military disability pension or Social Security benefits.

Any property that is deemed as part of the marital community (aka community property) will be divided during the divorce. Community property is any property or debt that was acquired by either spouse during the marriage—with some exceptions. That means that pretty much anything you acquired during the marriage, asset or debt, will be divided as part of the divorce proceeding.

The Court sets a Status Conference whenever it wants to either get an update from the parties or wants to discuss an issue. Some common reasons why a Court sets a Status Conference is to speak to the parties after they attempt mediation, to discuss any problems that have arisen related to custody, to resolve a discovery dispute, or to simply check in with the parties and see if there’s anything the Court can do to move the matter along.