Legal Question in Family Law in California

Re: Community Property and ''Separation Date''

Your earnings after the date of separation are your earnings, however, that only scratches the surface of the legal issues in your matter. If you earn income from investment of community funds those earnings are part, if not entirely, community. I assume that your earnings are in part from the monetary investment and in part from your efforts. The date of separation may be a more complex issue in your case because your statement of facts raises several questions. Best thing to do is to divide the properties now so that you will have your own separate property and the earnings from you efforts and investment will be yours. You should have an attorney work through this with you. Good Luck, Pat McCrary

Re: Community Property and ''Separation Date''

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to your question. I have handled several cases like this and a post separation purchase is not necessarily free from the community property laws. In order to show a post separation purchase was made from purely separate property funds, you would have to trace those funds to separate property, i.e., a loan or gift from a friend or institution. Should you put any of your own cash down on the property, there are going to be lots of questions your wife's attorney is going to have, and a court could deem the property as belonging to the community. I would at the very least recommend that you make full disclosure to your wife's attorney of any proposed transactions and the source of funds for those transactions, so it does not appear that you are trying to hide anything. Good luck. If I may be of any further assistance, you can contact me so that we can schedule a consultation.