Legal Question in Family Law in Missouri

Re: Divorce

In Missouri generally speaking property is separated into two classes for division of property purposes in a divorce. There is "separate property" and there is "marital property". Anything you still have that you owned before you were married is your separate property. So too is anything you received by gift or inheritance. Finally, if you traded or exchanged separate property for something else, that something else might also be considered "separate property". Everything that you acquired after the marriage, including all of your income, is considered "marital property", subject to the above exceptions. The court should follow a specific statute in a divorce which sets out the factors a court should consider in dividing the marital property. Different Judges consider different factors more important than others, and sometimes there is a customary practice in one jurisdiction which is different from the customary practice in other jurisdictions. The Judge has a great deal of discretion in these regards. I suppose that you could say that a good starting point would be about 50/50, although the Judge is only required to make a "fair" division of marital property, not an equal one. In St. Louis Colunty for example, I believe that most of the Judges do in fact reach a roughly equal division, usually within a few percentage points of 50/50, but across the state, divisions of 70/30 or even 80/20 do happen. If you are in this situation, I would strongly suggest that you hire the very best attorney you can afford.