Legal Question in Family Law in Massachusetts

Re: divorce

If it was not used a marital property and was owned prior to the marriage, your spouse should not have any right to the property. You are however required to disclose your ownership of it.

Just so you know, it does not matter where you are married, you are married and as such the law applies in the jurisdiction you are getting divorced.

Good luck.

Re: divorce

All property you own is subject to the court's authority. "Married here," if there are no legal impediments under Massachusetts law, is "married everywhere" (unless it is a same-sex marriage, under a probably unconstitutional Federal statute, or unless Brazil has some reason to refuse to recognize the validity of the marriage).

To the meat of this. The court makes several decisions.

1. Is the property marital property subject to division? The answer is "probably yes," because there is little that is NOT "subject to division."

2. What share should the other spouse get, under all of the facts? This is where things get tricky. (If the spouse contributed nothing to the purchase, acquisition, upkeep, or maintenance of this property, there is a good argument to make that the spouse's "share" is and should be "0.00%." In other words, though the property COULD be divided up, the Court may well say, "Come off it -- spouse did nothing to buy or support this property, so it should stay with the original owner 100%."

There are many situations that could cause the Court to order a share, even in that case. You should get a lawyer and explain your case.

There are no black-and-white answers in marital property and debt division.