You may be concerned about dividing marital property. Marital property can include possessions, real property and money.

If you and your spouse cannot agree in writing on how to divide you property, the court will divide it for you.

If it is necessary for the court to become involved, the judge generally divides the property in the following manner:

First, the court must identify what property is marital property and what property is separate. Marital property is all the property that the parties get during the marriage, including the increase in value of the parties' separate property. After the marital property is identified, the court must "equitably" divide the marital property. This does not mean "equally", but actually means "fairly", the goal though is often to come as close to an even division as possible. The court does not consider who is at fault in the divorce in the division of property.

The court may order that certain property be sold and the money received be divided as the court feels is fair. This often happens when the husband and wife cannot agree on who keeps certain items.

Each case is different, and the court will base its decision on the wishes and needs of those persons involved. An example of a non equal distribution might be where the property in part consists of a business in which the husband is the only active participant. If it is impractical for both the husband and the wife to share this business property, the court may decide to award it to husband and award the wife the property of an equal value, or the court may order the business sold and any proceeds of the sale divided between the parties.

In general, the court can consider the entire situation of both parties involved in a marital dispute. The court attempts to divide the property as fairly as possible based on all the facts and circumstances. In doing this, the court tries to consider the interest and needs of the parties and custody of any minor children. For instance, the court may grant possession of the marital residence to the parent who has custody of the minor children, either while the children are under eighteen, and order it sold when the youngest child turns eighteen, or may award the residence to the custodial parent and offset the equity of the marital residence against other property.

The court also must consider the allocation of the marital debts.

The court may consider fault and the condition of the parties and award alimony in solido, that is lump sum alimony, where after an equitable division of the property, the court determines that one spouse needs more than the property to support him or her self.

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