Family Law
Breakup of marriage,
property and custody
What is Family Law?
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An area of law dealing with family and
domestic issues, like:
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Marriage, civil unions, domestic partnerships
Domestic violence and abuse
Adoption, surrogacy, legitimacy
Termination of family relationships (divorce,
annulment, property settlements, alimony, child
support, custody, visitation rights)
Dissolution of Marriage
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In Washington, divorce is called dissolution
of marriage
The governing law is RCW 26.09
Washington is a no-fault divorce state
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This means you do not have to show anything
more than irreconcilable differences
Ending the marriage
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File dissolution petition with the court
Wait 90 days
Get a final dissolution decree (3 ways):
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Both parties agree to it
Both argue in front of the judge, who enters a
judgment
Default decree entered (no one argues)
Dissolution Decree
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Ends the marriage
Decides the following matters:
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marital property and debt allocation
Custody rights
Child support
Spousal maintenance
Restraining orders
The Property
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Dividing up the marital property, (i.e. who
gets what)
What is marital property?
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Marital Property is property of the marriage, often it
includes:
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Real property: houses and land
Personal property: boats, cars, art
Financial assets: cash, stocks, bonds
Future interests: pensions, retirement funds
Contractual rights
Question: Who does this belong to when the
marriage ends?
Answer: It depends
Community Property
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In WA, most of the assets are Community Property
Each spouse is regarded as contributing to the wellbeing of the community and
equally shares in the financial wellbeing of the marriage
Each spouse has a ½ interest in any property acquired by the marital
community
9 community property states:
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Washington
California
Texas
Louisiana
New Mexico
Wisconsin
Idaho
Arizona
Nevada
Alaska (can choose community property)
Community Property
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Most money coming into the marriage is
community property, this includes:
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salaries and compensation
Windfalls
Sale of community property
Interest and rent income
Wife’s
Salary
Husband’s
Salary
Marital
Community
Wife’s
Labor
Husband’s
Labor
Community and Separate Property
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Strong presumption that property acquired
during marriage is community property
However, some property is SEPARATE
property
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This is property that belongs to a spouse
individually
Separate Property
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Property held by a person before the
marriage
Property received as a gift or inheritance by
a person
Rents and profits from separate property
remain separate property
Mixed Property
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Of course, property will get mixed together, and this
becomes mixed property
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For example, a person may buy a house, then get married,
and the make payments after the marriage using income
from their salary (which is now community property).
Usually a court will proportion this property
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Basically divide it up according to whether the money used
to pay for it was community or separate
Mixed Property
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Mixed property can cause funny things to
happen
For example, a husband is injured in car
accident and wins an award of 200,000
dollars (100,000 for lost wages, and 100,000
for pain and suffering)
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The 100,000 for lost wages is community property
The 100,000 for pain and suffering is the separate
property of the husband
Property and Dissolution
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When the marriage ends, each spouse gets:
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Separate property
½ community property
However, judges have DISCRETION, and can
equitably distribute property, giving one spouse more
or less than ½ community property
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For example, if one spouse never worked and gambled
away all the money, the court may award that spouse less
than ½ community property
Community Property and Unmarried
Couples
In WA, we allow for committed intimate relationships
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Relationship must be stable and marital-like, court will look
at:
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Duration of relationship
Cohabitation
Pooling of resources
Intent of parties
Purpose of the relationship
Court will use equitable powers to distribute property
based on community property principles
Unmarried couples:
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However, Washington does not recognize common
law marriages,
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(unmarried couple living together like a married couple,
same as a committed intimate relationship)
So when distributing property at the end of the
relationship, the court will use of the community
property principles
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BUT, parties do not get any other marital rights (like rights to
retirement funds, pensions or health care)
This is to promote public policy of encouraging people to
marry
The Kids
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What happens to the kids?
Custody
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“In any proceeding between parents… the
best interests of the child shall be the
standard by which the court determines and
allocates the parties' parental
responsibilities.” RCW 26.09.002
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This means that a court will consider the best
interests of the child in deciding custody rights
What are best interests?
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The best interests of the child are served by
a parenting arrangement that best maintains
the child’s:
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Emotional growth
Health
Stability
Physical care
What are best interests?
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The best interest also means maintaining the
existing interaction between parent and child
as much as possible
The parent child relationship is altered only:
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to extent necessitated by the changed
relationship of the parents
or to protect the child from physical, mental, or
emotional harm
RCW 26.09.002
Who are the parents?
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Only legal parents have custody rights
Legal parents are:
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Natural parents
Adoptive parents