The parties accumulated significant property and investments during the marriage. The husband also owned two investment accounts and an interest in a trust. The trial court awarded these assets to the husband as his separate property. The Court of Appeals, however, found that although the husband had rebutted the presumption of equal contribution as to those assets, the fact that he had used those assets to pay for family expenses, that he intended those assets to benefit the family long term, and that he and the wife had relied on those assets in their joint financial planning, made it just and proper to award the wife a portion of those assets. The court awarded the wife an additional $2 million of the husband’s $10 million in separate assets.

The entire opinion can be found here.

The entire opinion can be found here.

 The entire opinion can be found here.

1. You were married at least 10 years
2. Your ex is unmarried
3. Your ex is 62 or older
4. Your ex is entitled to receive less benefits from their own work history v.s yours.
5. You are entitled to benefits.

Divorcing couples seeking a cooperative resolution who have been married 9, but not quite 10 years may wish to delay finalization so that the lower earning spouse can be entitled to the maximum benefits.

The Huffington Post carried  a good article by Linda Lipshutz, MS, ACSW on high profile divorces, and how to best conduct your business if you are unfortunate enough to be involved in one. So what to do when your friends, neighbors, or the media are dissecting and embellishing every sordid detail? Linda’s article correctly points out that (1) Public attention is short lived, and your neighbors / friends / the media will find another story that catches their attention soon; (2) Connecting with others helps enormously; and (3) No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.

Linda’s advice is spot on, and should be considered by all divorcing Oregonians who find that their private matter is not so private after all.

A link to the full Huffington Post article is here. 

In this case, the husband and wife were both former government employees and were both receiving monthly retirement benefit payments from PERS.  Generally retirement accounts are divided along with the rest of the personal property in a divorce case, and the court tries to make sure that the husband and wife each get an equal share of the property.  In this case, however, because both accounts were in payout status the Trial Court treated them as “income streams” for the purpose of calculating spousal support. The wife appealed the Trial Court’s decision, and the Court of Appeals decided that retirement accounts, even those in payout status, are property and should be divided as part of the property division, not treated as income.  As a result, the Court of Appeals ordered that the Trial Court should divide the retirement accounts between the parties and award the wife a portion of the husband’s account to equalize the property division.

The entire opinion can be found here.  http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/A144086.pdf

If you accidentally leave a debt out of your property division, and discover it later, the court can still help. Oregon Rule of Civil Procedure 71 B allows a party relief from a judgment for several reasons, including:

1. mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect;
2. newly discovered evidence which by due diligence could not have been discovered in time to move for a new trial;
3. fraud, misrepresentation, or other misconduct of an adverse party.

If a liability is accidentally omitted, or intentionally concealed by your spouse, the court has the power to re-open the Oregon divorce case and include it in the distribution. There is no substitute for due diligence during a divorce, including scrutinizing your credit report, and making sure all assets and liabilities are accounted for. However, if a liability is omitted, a lawyer can help make the liability distribution fair.

The lawyers at Stephens Margolin PC have substantial experience helping divorced Oregonians with post-judgment issues.

In this case, the wife owned a 60% interest in a piece of property prior to the marriage, and acquired the other 40% interest during the marriage. The trial court awarded the entire property to the wife as a pre-marital asset and did not include it in the division of marital property in the divorce. The Court of Appeals found that the wife’s 60% interest acquired prior to the marriage was her separate property, and not a marital asset. It also stated that the prenuptial agreement signed by the parties overrode any interest the husband might have had in the appreciation on the wife’s 60% interest under ORS 107.105(1)(f) or the Kunze line of cases. However, the Court found that the 40% interest that the wife acquired during the marriage was a marital asset. The Court stated that this interest was subject to the ORS 107.105(1)(f) presumption of equal contribution, and that the wife did not rebut that presumption where the husband made some financial contribution to the purchase, he was making financial contributions to the couple’s joint finances, and the couple used the property for “joint marital endeavors.”

The entire opinion can be found here.

Here are a few tips based on my 17 years of experience helping people during and after divorce:

1. Establish New Boundaries. Decide what things can and cannot be discussed. It is best for you to stay away from the topics of conflict until such time that you can calmly discuss them.
2. Compromise. “Agree to disagree.” This one can be tough because of pride and differences in opinion. When this happens, you need to focus and get back to the reason why you need to get along… your children. You should also acknowledge from the beginning that there will be inevitably differences in opinion. Then agree that when this happens, you should try not to talk while angry.  There should be a reasonable cooling period, and the try again.
3. Keep the promises. Once you and ex-spouse have compromised agreements, you need to keep those promises. If you agreed to take turns to pick up kids,  live up to that agreement.  Whether you followed through or not during the marriage, you need to now.
4. Continue to communicate. Communication is vital. The cold shoulder or silent treatment may have contributed to the breakdown of the marriage, and it is even more destructive to cooperation post-divorce.  You and your ex-spouse need to keep the lines of communication open even if it is awkward.
5. Consider Counseling. The Portland area has many extraordinary counselors who can help divorced couples with communication. I frequently refer people to counselors as part of our helping approach to divorce and because I believe that if successful,  it has enormous benefits for a client. If you or your ex are having difficulty with the above three points, consider getting into post divorce counseling to help with your communication issues.

Divorce is an opportunity to establish a new relationship with your ex that focuses on the children.  From my experience, parents that can focus on getting along and on the kids use lawyers less and are happier. Most importantly, there are enormous benefits for your children.

In Oregon at the time of divorce, the court can change the name of either spouse to a name the spouse held before the marriage.

Do you feel you need your former name for a fresh start? Do you have kids, and how will a name change affect the children at school and with their peers? Are you an established professional with goodwill attached to your current last name? There are a lot of considerations to go through in deciding what is the right choice for you.

If you decide to change your name, plan on spending substantial time working on it.

Here are some things that you need to do when you will change your last name:

1. Get new identification cards, such as drivers license or state ID card, social security, etc.
2. Inform people, agencies and organizations, and and companies of the change of name. You should let your bank, schools, doctors, postal office, insurance companies, business associates, family members, retirement accounts, and friends know.  Be ready for supporting documents when updating information.
3. Once you have completed #2, get a credit report to make sure your account information is showing accurately.
4. Update important papers, such as a will, advanced directive, power of attorney, motor vehicle tile, etc.