Maryland Property Division Factors – Buyer beware: Fight Only if you MUST.

In Maryland, the property and debt issues are settled between the parties by a signed Marital Settlement Agreement in the vast majority of divorces.  Agreeing to how the property should be divided and or disposed of is the most efficient method of dealing with this issue.  It is better for the parties and their children, if any, to agree on an amicable settlement.  This will save the emotional and financial toll a contested property case may take on the parties and their children.  The old adage that only the lawyers win in a contested property case is proven time and time again.  Be careful if your lawyer is more eager to litigate than you are.  If you decide to fight however, and sometimes we must, here are the factors the court will ultimately apply in determining who gets what.  Remember, the reluctant warrior is said to be the best one.   Maryland is referred to as an "equitable distribution" state. When the parties are unable to reach a settlement, the Circuit Court will take the following approach to dividing the assets; First, the parties will go through a discovery process to classify which property and debt is to be considered marital. Next, the Court will assign a monetary value to the marital property and debt. Last, it will distribute the marital assets between the two parties in an equitable fashion. Equitable does not mean equal, but rather what is deemed by the Circuit Court to be fair under the circumstances.  Under certain circumstances, the court may also transfer the title to certain property to one of the parties.

The court shall determine the property award after considering each of the following factors: (A)      the contributions, monetary and nonmonetary, of each party to the well-being of the family; (B)      the value of all property interests of each party; (C)      the economic circumstances of each party at the time the award is to be made; (D)      the circumstances that contributed to the estrangement of the parties; (E)      the duration of the marriage; (F)      the age of each party; (G)      the physical and mental condition of each party; (H)      how and when specific marital property or interest in property described was acquired, including the effort expended by each party in accumulating the marital property or the interest in property described in subsection (a)(2) of this section, or both; (I)      the contribution by either party of property to the acquisition of real property held by the parties as tenants by the entirety; (J)      any award of alimony and any award or other provision that the court has made with respect to family use personal property or the family home; and (K)      any other factor that the court considers necessary or appropriate to consider in order to arrive at a fair and equitable monetary award or transfer of an interest in property or both. (Maryland Code - Family Law Chapter - Section: 8-202, 8-203, 8-205)

If Marital and Nonmarital property (e.g., inheritance or pre-marital)  is co-mingled, the Court will go through a tracing process to determine what the proportions are in order to determine what would be an equitable distribution of that property. Directly traceable is not synonymous with attributable. When marital and nonmarital funds are commingled, no specific sum of money used to acquire property or reduce indebtedness on any property can be directly traced to any source. This inability to trace property acquired during the marriage directly to a nonmarital
source simply means that all property so acquired is marital property. For example a portion of a pension may have been saved prior to the marriage and then further funds were saved into the same account subsequent to the marriage.  This pension account is Commingled property and must be traced.  This tracing is calculated according to the “Bangs Formula.” See Bangs v. Bangs, 59 Md. App. 350, 356, 475 A.2d 1214 (1984).

Since Maryland is an "Equitable Distribution" state, all marital property will be divided in an equitable fashion according to the court unless agreed to otherwise by the divorcing spouses. What does "equitable" mean? Equitable can be defined as "what is fair, not necessarily equal." To automatically believe the marital property would be divided 50-50 would be a wrong assumption in any equitable distribution state. You can also read more about Maryland property division in the Maryland state statutes located at: http://mlis.state.md.us/.