EveryBody's Guide to the Law

have their property treated as community property by written agreement. Community property
is split right down the middle, with each spouse receiving an equal share. Community
property generally consists of everything owned or acquired by a couple during marriage. For
example, the wages earned by one spouse during marriage are community property. If a house
is bought with those wages, the house is also community property, and each spouse has equal
ownership of that house, even if only one spouse worked during the marriage. Under community
property laws, anything you own before you get married is your separate property, as are
any gifts or inheritances you receive during the marriage.
The judge can divide only the community property; separate property remains the property
of the spouse who owns it. In dividing the community property and awarding alimony and
child support, the court can, however, consider the amount of separate property either of the
parties owns.
Problems often arise when separate property is mixed with community property. In some
cases, it is necessary for the parties’ lawyers to hire accountants to track the history of an asset
claimed to be separate property. For instance, a racehorse that one spouse claims to be a community
asset may have been purchased by the other spouse with the rental monies from a
house he or she inherited from a parent. By going through the financial records of the parties,
an accountant may be able to discover (trace) just where the money came from.
ALIMONY
Alimony (or “spousal support”) is money one spouse pays to the other to help support him
or her after the divorce. If you don’t agree with your spouse on whether spousal support has to
be paid, how much should be paid, and for how long, a judge will decide for you. At one time,
it was invariably the husband who wound up paying spousal support. Today, however, when
both spouses have a working history the judge is less likely to award spousal support, or if it is
awarded, it is less than if the wife had stayed home taking care of the kids for twenty-five years.
Today, some men take on the role of primary caregiver for the couple’s children, and they are
entitled to collect spousal support until they are retrained and can enter the modern marketplace.
We normally think of spousal support in terms of monthly payments. But any other means
of payment that the parties agree to or the court orders—such as quarterly or annual payments—is
possible. Sometimes a spouse will accept a single, lump sum payment of spousal support
and the bulk of the community property in place of future monthly support payments.
When this happens, the other spouse should make sure that he or she is not giving away too
much too fast in order to get out of an unpleasant situation.
How much spousal support will you get? There is no set formula for determining how much
spousal support, if indeed any, must be paid in a particular case. The alimony may range from
16 Everybody’s Guide to the Law