Protecting Your Property
Serving Clients Throughout Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Among the difficulties of divorce, property division is one area rife with conflict. You need highly qualified legal representation to protect your rights and interests. I am Virginia marital property division lawyer Lisa Lane McDevitt and I can help you resolve your property disputes quickly and minimize your legal costs. For more than a decade, I have helped clients resolve property division matters and craft property settlement agreements that effectively achieve their goals and protect their interests.
As an experienced, results-focused family lawyer, I can help you protect your assets and come to an amicable agreement with your spouse. Because I have focused on family law services for more than a decade, I have acquired in-depth legal knowledge that will help me take a creative approach to resolving your problems.
Contact me today for a free initial consultation about your case.
Marital Property vs. Separate Property
Virginia's property division laws make a clear distinction between marital property and separate property. Usually, only marital property is divided in divorce. Marital property is defined as assets and debts acquired during the marriage. Separate property can include:
- Property acquired before the marriage
- Gifts and inheritances acquired during the marriage
- Property acquired in exchange for separate property
- Any increase in the value of separate property
To protect your interests, I will carefully go over details about your property, including when you purchased it and its approximate worth. Gathering account numbers, serial numbers and other information before you see a divorce attorney can save you a lot of time and money. Thorough understanding of this information is critical to devising a fair marital property division agreement.
Fairfax Divorce Lawyer — Asset and Debt Division (Equitable Distribution)
Virginia is an equitable distribution state, meaning that if you and your spouse do not come to an agreement, your marital property will be divided in an equitable fashion, not necessarily equally. A court may look at the length of the marriage, your and your spouse's monetary and nonmonetary contributions to the family's well-being, and the tax consequences of the property division. However, I focus on keeping you out of court to give you, not a judge, control over the outcome of your case.
Combining extensive legal knowledge and strong problem-solving and communication skills, I will work to resolve property conflicts with your spouse out of court.
There also are exceptions to equitable distribution. If you have a prenuptial agreement, assets specified within it are protected. Prenuptial agreements are enforceable under Virginia's Uniform Premarital Agreement Act provisions.
For more information about the legal aspects of property division, visit the Family Law Practice Center.
Contact me, an experienced Vienna, Virginia, marital property division attorney to discuss your concerns.
