Legal Question in Family Law in Maine

Re: Marital Property

I do not know how you are interpreting the term "community property" state when referring to Maine, but I can tell you that Maine is not a community property state in the sense that Maine's divorce laws are much different from those found in California, or other traditional community property states out West.

With that said, Maine's law is: Property that was acquired during the marriage is presumed to be marital, assuming that it was not acquired only as part of a spouse exchanging pre-marital property for something else (and not intending to give the spouse new rights), or receiving a gift or an inheritance that was clearly meant by the giver to be non-marital. Each party is presumed to have an equal interest in marital property.

Therefore, you need to determine what are the issues with respect to the house that was built during the marriage. Was the land that it was built upon also acquired during the marriage? Were either spouses' pre-marital funds used to acquire or construct? If the property still seems to be marital, then is there a reason why each party should not be entitled to 50% of the value?

Without more fully evaluating the issues it is difficult to know what you need for "proof", but you should probably have as much documentation as possible organized and ready to use, such as checking account statements, contracts with third parties, receipts, time records, or create a time record by reviewing a calendar and marking in the time and dates that work was performed. Testimony by eye witnesses should also be considered.

In the final analysis, this type of issue is often able to be negotiated between the parties, in exchange for consideration of other issues in the case.