Law Blog

In today's world, fewer marriages exist and more people are cohabitating in committed relationships for various reasons. Arizona's community property laws do not apply to the ownership of real property between unmarried individuals.  This limits the way in which title can be held, but also raises additional issues, such as what happens to the property upon th...

Requests for Admission are written statements of fact which are submitted to an adverse party in a divorce proceeding which that party is required to admit or deny. They can be an effective and efficient way to establish facts and limit the amount of unresolved issues for trial. Any party to a divorce action has the right to serve on a written Request for Admissio...

When faced with a contract dispute, parties frequently hire attorneys and use the court system to resolve their dispute.  However, there is an alternative dispute mechanism - Binding Arbitration - which is available to resolve disputes if the parties have already agreed to use that method of dispute resolution.  In boilerplate contract language, binding a...

Arizona is a community property state which means all property acquired by either spouse during the marriage is, by statute, presumed to be community property. The characterization of property as either sole and separate property or community property is established at the time the property is acquired. Accordingly, in divorces when one of the spouses is the owner...

The amount of time it takes for a divorce to be finalized is different in everyone's case and is driven by a variety of factors.  One of the most important factors is whether other professionals need to be brought into the case such as custody evaluators or business appraisers. This will take more time, as they play an important role in helping to provide inf...

Whenever a privately held business is among the assets in a dissolution proceeding, certain fundamental issues must be addressed in the context of determining the value of the business. [1]If the business is relatively small in terms of the gross revenue it generates, the first issue is often whether the business is worth valuing. The cost of having a qualified pr...

In Arizona, it is not uncommon for a spouse in a dissolution proceeding to assert a "waste" claim against the other spouse.  The term "waste" does not appear in the Arizona statutes that define community property or relate to the dissolution of marriage.  The concept generally derives from the fact that both spouses in a marriage have a fiduciary relatio...

A prenuptial agreement is a binding legal document between a prospective husband and wife, which addresses the financial consequences of their marriage ending. Technically, all couples who are married already have a "prenuptial agreement" - it is the particular divorce laws of the state. In Arizona, for example, absent a prenuptial agreement, community property pri...

In many cases, one of the most contentious and difficult issues in a divorce proceeding is the valuation and distribution of marital property.  When the marital community owns an interest in a business, this process can be complicated and expensive.  Often, the community's interest in the business is the most valuable asset of the marital estate.  W...

Divorce mediation is a process of resolving disputes by engaging a neutral third party who acts as a facilitator, assisting the divorcing spouses in reaching an agreement. This is a voluntary process, meaning both parties must agree in order for it to occur. Unlike arbitration, the mediator is not empowered to make any decisions.  Because mediators are by defi...