People often say that marriages require work to be successful and, when a person considers the sacrifices individuals must make for the greater good of their relationships, then the truth of the statement can be understood. However, some Mohawk Valley readers also know that for some couples, it does not matter how much effort they put into their marriages: their relationships are simply not salvageable.
When a marriage fails, the parties may look to divorce as a means of terminating their legal relationship. A divorce is much more than just the end of a couple’s union. It is also the process that legally divides the partners’ rights to the property they obtained during their marriage.
Property owned by a married person may be considered marital property or non-marital property, depending upon how it was acquired and how it was managed during the tenure of the person’s marriage. While a person may leave a marriage with the individual property they outright owned, they may find that their right to claim ownership in marital property is not as broad as they may have presumed. This is because marital property is owned by both of the partners to a marital relationship, and, as such, it must be divided by the court responsible for the parties’ divorce.
Practically any type of property may be marital property
, from the retirement accounts a person accumulates from the work they perform to any business assets they own with their soon-to-be ex-spouse. As a result of a divorce, a person may discover that their wealth is diminished in the wake of the property division process, and, as such, many divorcing parties choose to use the help of family law attorneys when their property rights are on the line. The attorneys of Callanen, Foley & Hobika are available to work with individuals residing in Oneida County and the greater Mohawk Valley who have questions about how their marital property will be divided during their divorces.