Community Property

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Frequently I receive a lot of questions regarding how to prove the character of a certain piece of property. Recall that community property in Texas is defined in the negative as all property acquired during the marriage except through gift, devise or descent. Thus, community property is pretty much every piece of property obtained during the marriage what wasn’t gifted or inherited to one particular spouse. Separate property is property that does not owe its existence to the marriage. Put another way, everything that is not community property is defined as separate property, including property which was owned prior to the marriage.
Continue Reading The Inception of Title Rule – A Primer.

Recently I had a potential client present the following scenario to me. Wife was involved in an at-fault car accident. Wife is sued by the other driver. Husband is concerned that the person his wife was in an accident with will go after “all” the property they own, even husband’s prized baseball card collection he had before marriage. The question then became, can they take my separate property for my wife’s negligence?
Continue Reading Question to Dallas Divorce Lawyer: My spouse got in a car wreck, can they take my separate property?

Texas law typically treats corporations, partnerships, and other types of businesses as a separate legal entity – existing apart from shareholders and partners. Because these businesses are separate legal entities, only the spouse’s interest in the corporation, partnership or other business is up for division by the divorce court. This means that specific corporate assets are often off-limits in a divorce action. But, there is an exception to this rule when alter ego can be established.
Continue Reading Alter Ego and Piercing the Corporate Veil in the Context of Divorce

I received a question from a client today asking how the court would determine the value of the piece of property in the community estate. Often times, the parties will litigate over the value of a piece of property, so it is important to know how, in the absence of an agreement, the court will determine a property’s value.
Continue Reading Fair market value vs. Intrinsic value: Which one to use?

On July 8, 2009, the Tyler Court of Appeals affirmed a judgment for monetary damages in favor of one spouse against the other. In Colvin v. Colvin, the husband sued his wife for personal injury damages caused by his wife in an automobile collision. Under the facts presented, wife was the driver of a car and the husband was the passenger. Wife and a third party were in a collision, third party sued wife, and then husband intervened in the lawsuit and sued third party and wife (husband and wife were married at the time and are still so).
Continue Reading ‘Til death do us part, or until I sue you.