Louisiana Divorce Attorney: Obligations are Shared Just like Property in Community Regimes

Many times when a spouse hires a divorce attorney, one of their foremost concerns is "what is going to happen to my property?" It is an understandable concern, especially here in Louisiana. The reason is because this state uses a "community property regime." That simply means that, generally, property acquired during the course of the marriage is split evenly between the parties in the event of a dissolution of the marriage. This being the case, there are situations where one of the spouses can show that the property was acquired before the marriage, or acquired with funds or other property considered "separate" under Louisiana law, and this will free that property from being declared community.

One equally weighty consideration which a divorce attorney may explain is the idea of community obligations. In Louisiana, we have many different and sometimes funny names for common law concepts and legal theories. An "obligation" can mean many different things that you might recognize under another name. For example, a contract to pay money for a car is a type of obligation. One of the relevant Louisiana Civil Code articles dealing with the idea of "community obligations" is article 2360. This article states that an obligation "for the common interest of the spouses or for the interest of the other spouse" will count as a "community obligation."

Article 2360 provides a divorce attorney with a few generalizations to be made about community obligations. First, it is worthy to note that the obligation can be for either the spouses or "the interest of the other spouse." This language means that the spouse who incurs the obligation needs to have done so for the spouse who did not incur the obligation for the obligation to be considered community. Secondly, as we probably could imagine, an obligation incurred for the benefit of both parties to a marriage is going to be shared because the obligation was for the "common interest" of the spouses.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are "separate obligations." Much like separate property, these obligations remain only the responsibility of the spouse who incurs after the divorce attorney has ended the marriage. Let's use two quick examples. Let's say Tommy has a boat that he bought in 2002. In 2005 he got married to Marcia. The boat is probably going to be considered his separate property (unless there are other facts we don't know about.) Now let's say that the boat never worked properly (in fact since he bought it Tommy never used it, and it sat in a garage at his mother's house), and it needed a good deal of restoration. In order to have the restoration done, Tommy took out a bank loan for four thousand dollars. Before he paid back the bank loan, he hired a divorce attorney and ended his marriage to Sally. In this example, Tommy had a piece of separate property, and, during the existence of the marriage to Marcia, Tommy incurred an obligation directly related to the separate property. It was not for Marcia; and it could be argued that it was not in the "common interest" of the spouses.

Will Beaumont has an office in New Orleans and Metairie. This article is only informational; it is not legal advice.