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Valuation of commercial real estate and rental properties is an issue that arises in high-asset divorce proceedings. Real estate appraisal is sometimes performed within a business valuation, if the business owns real estate. In 2011, the U.S. Tax Court issued an opinion addressing real estate valuation in a case where competing experts offered two different methods. Like most Tax Court cases, this opinion involved an owner who had passed away, […]

A recent Superior Court decision, Childress v. Bogosian, 2011 WL 61616 (2011), illustrates the challenge of tracing nonmarital property in divorce. Under Pennsylvania law, the property owned by a spouse prior to marriage, or acquired by gift or inheritance during the marriage, or acquired after separation, is generally nonmarital property if it has not been converted into marital property by re-titling it in joint names. Still, the law creates a […]

In Re Miller, 424 B.R. 171 (M.D. Pa. 2010) Wife/Debtor filed a chapter 13 bankruptcy petition, in which she attempted to classify an “income maintenance award” of $88,500 received in a divorce decree as property exempted from the bankruptcy estate.  The divorce decree provided that Wife was to receive $88,500 cash in order to effectuate a 67%/33% division of marital property.  Next, Wife’s former divorce lawyer filed a proof of […]

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled recently that agreements between spouses who plan to continue their marriage but wish to define their legal rights and obligations in the event of divorce are enforceable in that state. Some states (notably Ohio) do not permit spouses to execute agreements waiving their marital rights unless they are actually pursuing divorce, and the law of many states is unsettled. In its recent decision, […]

A thorny issue that arises early in many divorce proceedings is the question of who may live in the marital residence during the separation period. Generally speaking, the courts will not evict either spouse from the marital residence during separation if they are living together peacefully and have not voluntarily moved away. This principle leads some devious spouses to seek questionable or even fraudulent protection from abuse (PFA) orders. Spouses who […]

Divorcing spouses often ask me about credit card debts and loans. While a divorce court may assign responsibility for paying credit card debts and loans that were incurred during the marriage, the court generally lacks jurisdiction over the creditors. In other words, the divorce court cannot force the credit card issuer to collect from one particular spouse if both spouses were cardholders. If both spouses’ names are on the credit […]