Distribute

Marital property is distributed to one spouse or the other and becomes owned by that spouse

Overview

In most cases, the judge will give property and debt to whoever has current title or possession, unless the spouses agree otherwise. For example, if the car is titled to you and it's the car you used during the marriage, the judge will likely distribute that car to you. In most cases, it doesn't matter which spouse gets what, because whoever keeps an item has to pay for its value.

Distributive Award

Once property is valued and distributed, you can add up the value of everything one spouse is taking, add up the value of everything the other spouse is taking, and determine who is taking more stuff.

Whoever is taking more stuff has to pay the other spouse a Distributive Award. This is a cash payment to balance the distribution to 50/50. For example, if one spouse took $10k worth of stuff, and the other spouse took $110k worth of stuff, the spouse taking more stuff needs to pay $50k (half the difference) to balance it to 50/50.

Exceptions to 50/50

The court starts from a presumption that 50/50 is a fair distribution, but it can deviate. That being said, arguing for a 70/30 distribution, or similar, is frivelous. Typically, deviations from 50/50 are for things like:

• Specific expenses one spouse paid after separation that should have been split. For example, mortgage payments made by one spouse while the other spouse continued living there.
• Future tax liabilities one spouse is taking as a result of how property and debt were distributed that cannot be precisely calculated.
• Active depreciation, which is a fancy way of saying someone who destroyed property after separation.