What Is Equitable Division?

Hi, I'm Dave Ward with The Ward Law Firm, and one of the things that has to happen when you're going through either a divorce or a separate maintenance action is property has to be divided up. And in order to do that, courts have to have a method for doing that. The same is true for debts as well.
The way the court does that here in Georgia is by going through what's called equitable division, and what I mean by that is here in Georgia, we don't simply divide things. In other words, we don't have equal division here in Georgia. Equitable division means that we're going to do what is fair under the circumstances in this particular situation, meaning that your case is going to be looked at separate and apart from every other case that goes on, so that way the court can reach the right decision for you in your case.
In order for the court to be able to make determinations about what is fair under the circumstances of your case, the court’s going to look at things like; what is considered separate property? What is marital property? What debts were acquired that were used for the purpose of supporting the marriage as opposed to say something that is more personal in nature. All of those things are going to be looked at as the court goes through, it’s going to look at the conduct of the parties during the marriage, their relative contributions to everything.
There are a number of factors that a court can look at and the list really is pretty infinite, because the court can consider pretty much anything that is relevant to answering that question. If you have any other questions about this or anything else related to your case, give us a call. I'm Dave Ward with The Ward Law Firm and we help parents protect those things that are most important.