After 12 years of marriage, however, the parties encountered marital difficulties, and separated.   They divorced in 1984.

One of the issues in their divorce involved the valuation of two of their investments, namely limited partnership interests in real estate ventures.  The managing partner testified that one of the investments was worth about $50,000 and the other was insolvent and owed more than it was worth.  The court valued Michael’s share of the first partnership at about $11,000 and the second partnership at a negative value of approximately $15,000.

This was erroneous the Court of Special Appeals ruled.  The trial court has to value each item of marital property separately and there is no provision in the statute for deducting a loss on a bad investment from other marital property.  Therefore, the court could not assign a negative value.  The lowest value marital property can have is zero.

Green v. Green, 64 Md. App. 122; 494 A.2d 721 (1985)

“Come on, Sobel,” Castor said.  “The judge is not going to put my guy in jail.  It’s contractual alimony, not court ordered alimony.”

“Whadya mean, Castor?  The Agreement is incorporated into the Divorce Decree.  That makes it a court order.  And your client has failed to comply with it.”

“Well there is no imprisonment for debt in Maryland.  Check the state constitution, Sobel.”

“You check it, Castor.  I’ve got it right here.  Section 398 of Article III says ‘No person shall be imprisoned for debt, but a valid decree of a court of competent jurisdiction or agreement approved by decree of said court for the support of a wife or dependent children or for alimony shall not constitute a debt within the meaning of this section.’

“Sobel, me and my client will, as they say, see you in court.”

“Tell your client to bring his checkbook or a toothbrush, Castor, for when he goes to the slammer.”

Divorce and debt problems go hand in hand and financial problems are the cause of many divorces. In many cases, men who go through a divorce are financially well off while women struggle with soaring debts and no one else to fall back on. If the woman wasn’t working or was financially dependent on her husband, a divorce can be economically devastating.  For many women, being separated or divorced is both challenging and stressful. The situation becomes worse when she is the caretaker for children.

If you are a single woman with a huge amount of debt, you should know about the debt relief options that are available to you.  Debt consolidation vs debt settlement – if this is the question in your mind, make sure you consider the pros and cons of each option and the costs that are associated with them.  While there are several professional debt relief options that you can take resort to, it is still better to be financially diligent and follow some steps on your own so that you may be able to save your dollars on the unnecessary fees. Here are some steps that you can take.

1.  Check your credit report thoroughly. The first step that you should take is to check your credit report thoroughly. Your husband may have handled the family finances before, but now that your marriage is ending, you need to take charge of every financial task. Order a free copy of your credit report in order to check where you stand financially. Check whether or not your credit report still carries debt that is owed actually by your spouse. Try to remove all such erroneous information so as to emerge creditworthy on your own.

2.  Establish a frugal budget and categorize your expenses. You should form a budget so that you can follow it throughout the month and thereby maintain a balance between what you earn and what you spend. You also have to categorize your expenses so that you can spend your dollars on your needs and wants. Always try to keep your luxury expenses after your needs so that you don’t have to repent later on.

3.  Negotiate with your lenders. You can negotiate with your lenders.  Tell them about the financial hardship that you’re going through. Don’t refrain from getting help from the creditors and the lenders as they can often help you with the best steps. Ask them to alter the interest rates and the terms of the loans so that you can more easily repay without falling back on all the other debt obligations.

4.  Save money and start making payments. Make sure you save at least 10% of what you earn so that you can build an emergency fund that can be used during an emergency. Soon as the creditors relax the terms and conditions on your debt accounts, make sure you start making the payments so that you can get out of the debt cycle as soon as possible.

If you are getting divorced and you owe a huge amount of debt on your credit cards, try taking the steps outlined above.  Only when you can’t get out of debt on your own, should you opt for debt consolidation or a debt settlement.

Then he got a divorce in 2008 and soon after became engaged to yoga instructor Karen Hader.  In dividing up the marital assets, Henry submitted that he was an innate genius and Nancy had no part in his financial success.  He alone, through his unique personal traits, was responsible for accumulating a $450 million fortune during the marriage.  To support his theory, he submitted affidavits from three psychologists who would testify at trial about his intelligence.

State Supreme Court Judge Laura Drager rejected the evidence, saying that although “the husband brought to his work innate abilities and acumen that helped cause the business to succeed, ” the wife also contributed by “managing the couples’ domestic and social life and raising their daughter, and the social introductions and other efforts she claims to have made that assisted the husband in business.”

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“We had lost our wives and husbands. We had lost our best friends. We had lost sex. We had lost our children. We had lost our animals. We had lost our homes. We had lost our furniture. We had lost our gardens. Our incomes had severely plummeted. There were new therapists to pay, and lawyers to pay, and moving costs to pay. Some of us had to replace even the spices in our cupboards and the toilet brushes behind the bowls. We moved without screwdrivers, without our art, without our shampoo.”

No because the equity in the house is tax free.  You will pay a tax of about 35% when you start taking your pension.  That makes the pension worth 65% of $200,000 or $130,000.

Would you let your spouse keep $10,000 in the joint checking account if you can keep $10,000 in joint IBM stock?  The bank account is tax free.  Any capital gains on the IBM stock will be taxed when you sell it.  So you won’t get $10,000 in cash.

Trades that look equal on paper, aren’t necessarily equal once you take taxes into account.

Yet 40 percent of those surveyed say honesty in finances is more important than honesty about fidelity.

About one out of four (26 percent) say they avoid talking about money altogether.

Recently Brian saw an entry on her blog that she was now belly dancing.  Furious, he took her back to court.

Dorothy claimed that her doctor had prescribed belly dancing as therapy for her injuries in a 1997 car accident.  The doctor however did not support that claim in court.

The judge reduced alimony to $400 a month, ordered her to pay her husband’s attorney fees of $5,000 and to give him 60% of the proceeds from the sale of the house.

As Shakira says, “Hips Don’t Lie”.

If the prenup is presented the day before the wedding, after the invitations have been mailed, the wedding gown paid for, and the banquet hall rented, it could be challenged on the basis of duress.  The challenger might say something like, “I didn’t understand it and I didn’t read it.  I just signed it so the wedding could go on.”

The way to defend a prenup from this challenge is to start negotiating long before the wedding.  Keep drafts and other documents.  Place a clause in the agreement that says the parties have negotiated the terms for a long time before the wedding, each has consulted a lawyer or has had an opportunity to do so, each understands the provisions of the agreement, and neither feels any duress or pressure to sign.

If you know your settlement goals and priorities, you’ve had a thorough conversation with your lawyer about the range of settlement, and you’ve done some soul searching yet you simply can’t live with the most recent offers that are on the table, then a trial is your remaining option.

The good news is that few cases come to that point. About 95% of all divorce cases settle before you get to trial.  But it happens, and it’s serious business.  It’s time consuming, nerve-wracking, and incredibly expensive.  Back when I was a litigation attorney, I enjoyed going to trial because it gave me a chance to practice what I was trained to do in law school.  But I rarely encouraged clients to go to trial because even a mediocre settlement would likely net them more than a great judgment after a trial, taking into account the litigation costs, time away from work, and wear and tear on their soul.

Inappropriate or non-existent settlement offers are legitimate reasons to try your case. But be sure that’s really what you’re haggling over, and that these issues aren’t just red herrings.  If you want to go to trial to prove a point, to tell your story, or to seek justice or revenge on your spouse you’re going to be very disappointed.  Backlogged courts don’t have time for lengthy testimony, and as dramatic as your story may be to you, it’s much too similar to thousands of other divorce stories for many judges to sit up and take notice.

So understand your motivations.  Your lawyer is worried about your legal case, asset division, securing support for you, and your parenting plan if you have children.  As the client, however you may be feeling a great deal of stress, grief, loss and anger over the situation and it’s hard to think about your settlement in such nuts and bolts terms.  Conflict between you and your lawyer may happen while you’re processing the emotional divorce while the lawyer views this essentially as a business deal.

While for the divorcing spouses a trial is both an economic and psychological decision, understand that judges are mostly concerned with providing a reasonably fair allocation of income and assets based on the laws of your state. They are not concerned with unraveling every transaction between you and your spouse. Fault issues like endless arguments and hurtful words may be at the forefront of your mind, but will probably seem minor to the judge.  After all, you’re the 30^th case he or she has seen today alone.

Don’t make the decision to try your case on moral grounds alone. This is essentially a business transaction, even if it doesn’t feel that way, and you need to decide how you can finalize your case in the least expensive (both in terms of money and wear and tear on you) way possible.  Don’t let your emotions get in the way of a good, solid business decision.

Preparing for a divorce trial

Forgiveness