Division of Marital Assets under Georgia Law

Jeff Cleghorn, a partner at Kitchens, New & Cleghorn, LLC (http://www.gadivorcelitigators.com) talks about division of marital assets.

Transcript

Under Georgia law, marital property is divided equitably which of course just means fairly. In making an equitable division decision determination, courts and judges look at a number of factors particularly the circumstances and facts related to the dissolution of the marriage. Why did the marriage end? What did the husband and the wife do or not do? Conduct issues are factors that judges will sometimes consider in determining how to fairly or equitably divide marital property. The law in Georgia does not say that marital property is to be divided equally. It does not say 50-50 although an equal or 50-50 division is sometimes appropriate and oftentimes happens. But courts certainly do have the authority to award a higher percentage of the marital property to a spouse based upon the discretion of the judge.

The same general legal principle applies to marital debt. Unfortunately, with the economy having been unhealthy, over the past couple of years, we have found an increasing propensity of clients in divorces to be arguing over how to divide debt and what would be an equitable and fair way of dividing debt particularly with people's homes, many of which have fallen underwater as we say, which means that the amount that the husband and wife owe in the house is greater than the value of the house itself. In getting a divorce in this case, they're not dividing equity in the house. They're unfortunately having to argue over who's going to pay the debt or how to divide the debt in the house. So that's the general concept of equitable division under Georgia law.

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• Division of Marital Assets
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• Dividing Debt in Divorce
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