Is Georgia a Community Property State

If you want to get an answer to the question, "Is Georgia a community property state?," please keep reading to get the answer.

Community property law doesn't apply in Georgia

The short answer to the question, "Is Georgia a community property state?" is "No." In Georgia, when a marriage ends, the rules of equitable division apply. This means all property acquired during the marriage is considered marital property and is subject to division.

The words "equitable" and "equal" sound similar, but they are not the same. In Georgia, marital property is divided in a way that is fair, but what is a fair settlement for one couple may not be that way for another. The "norm" is that the couple's marital property is divided 50/50, but in some cases the Court may determine that a different way of dividing the assets is considered equitable.

Under Georgia law, property that a person acquired before the marriage is not considered marital property. During the marriage, any property received as a gift or as part of an inheritance is excluded from any calculation of marital property.

In many cases, the divorcing couple reach an agreement between themselves and the terms are included in a Marital Settlement Agreement. When the couple can't agree, then the matter will need to be decided by a judge. The process is as follows:

1. The parties go through a discovery process to determine which assets the couple owned during the marriage, as well as the debts they incurred before the split.
2. The next step in the process is to have the Court assign a value to each asset and add in the debt.
3. Once the calculations have been completed, the judge will make a determination of how the assets should be split between the parties.

The Georgia Code doesn't list any specific factors that a judge needs to consider when deciding how a couple's assets are to be divided in an equitable manner: "The verdict of the jury disposing of the property in a divorce case shall be carried into effect by the court by entering such judgment or decree or taking such other steps as are usual in the exercise of the court´s equitable powers to execute effectually and fully the jury's verdict." (Georgia Code - Sections: 19-5-13)

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