Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: Community Property Agreement and Interrogatories

Your Community Property Agreement apparently coverted all property into community property. It was not necessary for this to be recorded to accomplish this act (although it would ultimately be necessary to clear real property). The issue of 5 years does not make a difference. My guess is that the attorney arbitrarily used 5 years as a reasonable time in asking the question, or that it is a 5 year marriage. The time does not affect the validity of the CPA or how the court would divide the property. In a dissolution, the court has jurisdiction over all property, both community property and separate property. The standard the court uses is a fair and equitable division of assets (not 50%/50%). The court is obligated to determine the character of the property (community or separate). In a division, the court will traditionally give the separate property to the party to whom it belongs, and then divide the community property in a fair and equitable basis. The court can, in extraordinary circumstances, give the separate property of one party to the other, but this is only in extraordinary circumstances. The court will ultimately do what it thinks is fair under the circumstances.