Legal Question in Family Law in California

The pending action is an asset that will need to be dealt with in the divorce, not after. The community is entitled to half the lost wage component of the claim up to the date of separation, because those are treated the same as wages earned during the marriage. So how much the community gets half of will depend heavily on the terms of the settlement, how many months or years of lost wages you settle for or are awarded at trial, and what portion of that is deemed to have been lost prior to the date of separation. So to finalize the divorce you will either need to assign an agreed value to that contingent claim for property distribution purposes, or have a contigent term in your marital settlement agreement that covers how the proceeds of the settlement will be allocated once they come in.