Is Florida a Community Property State

If you are wondering, "Is Florida a community property state?" you are probably contemplating divorcing your spouse or have already started with the divorce papers. Keep reading to find out how Florida divorce laws divide property between you and your spouse.

It's important to know the difference between marital and non-marital property before learning how Florida divides property in divorce. Marital property is all assets and debts incurred during the marriage. Non-marital property is everything acquired before the marriage.

To answer the question, "Is Florida a community property state?" simply, Florida is not a community property state. Community property law is not as common as the equitable distribution rule used in other states. States that follow the community property law include:

• Arizona
• California
• Idaho
• Louisiana
• Nevada
• New Mexico
• Texas
• Washington
• Wisconsin

Florida divorce law uses equitable distribution to divide property between spouses. Equitable distribution is different from community property law in that the financial situation of each spouse determines what percentage of the couple's property each one receives. This means that it's rare that the marital property is divided on a 50/50 basis. Some of the variables that the Court will look at when determining how much each spouse will receive include:

• Property each spouse will own after divorce
• How much each spouse will earn after divorce
• If one of the spouse's worked harder to acquire the property during marriage
• The amount each spouse contributed to the family
• Whether one spouse wasted or dissipated marital property
• How long the marriage lasted
• Age and health of spouses
• Which spouse will have custody of children
• Abuse or infidelity

In equitable distribution, Florida recognizes all property acquired during a marriage except money or property received as a gift or inheritance.

You may feel that you need to work with a divorce attorney so you get what you are entitled to in the divorce settlement. However, if you and your spouse can come to an agreement on who gets what in marital property, you won't need to go before the judge to have him/her decide for you using the principles of equitable distribution.

If you don't want to go before the judge but can't work out how much you and your spouse should get, contact a divorce attorney for help. The attorney will help you gather all of your marital property information and go through it with both of you to decide who will end up with what. The attorney can also help you fill out the paperwork so that you can submit it to the Court for approval. Keep in mind that legal fees may be expensive, so try to do as much as you can on your own, or use inexpensive legal options such as Legal Aid (if you qualify).

You can divorce your spouse for any reason in Florida; in other words, it's a no-fault state. All you need to state in the papers is that you want a divorce because of irreconcilable differences and that you and your spouse have been residents of Florida for six months or more. For more information on Florida divorce laws, check out these articles:

• Florida Divorce
• Divorce and Finances

• Community Property with Right of Survivorship
• Divorce Equitable Distribution
• Division of Marital Property

• Free Legal Separation Forms
• Divorce Statistics
• Legal Separation
• Filing for Legal Separation
• Green Card Divorce

• Child Support Guidelines
• Category:Child Support
• Florida Divorce
• Ohio Divorce
• Arizona Divorce