Cut the House In Two?

Washington is a community property state.   There are usually no juries in divorce cases; the judge hears the case, views the evidence, and distributes the couple’s assets.  And cuts the house into two pieces or what? …All assets brought into the marital community are presumed community property, owned 50/50 by both spouses.   You can dispute the 50/50 presumption by “tracing” a particular asset to a “separate property” source.  For example, inheritances are considered to be given directly to the husband or wife, as opposed to the “marital community,” or, 50/50.  The wife’s inheritance will be considered to be her separate property.

Despite the verifiability of Separate Property, judges have broad discretion to disburse a couple’s overall assets to do equity.  In other words, the judge may “adjust things” based one spouse having a lower earning potential (maybe one did not finish college due to having kids), or, how long the marriage was in effect.  “A trial court is not required to divide community property equally.”  In re Marriage of Rockwell, 141 Wn. App. 235, 242-43, 170 P.3d 572 (2007).

People appeal dissolution orders, arguing disproportionality amongst other things, i.e., one spouse got 40% and the other got 60% of the community property (“CP”).  Indeed even an express order of 35%/65% of what is determined CP can be upheld on appeal if one spouse needs assets more than the other. 

At the end of the day, the judge will decide!  There has to be a lot of strangeness and indeed arbitrariness before a distribution will be overturned.