Community property in Louisiana can be both complex and sometimes simple. Looking at an example, it can be possible to understand how such laws may apply in a given case.
Divorce attorneys often think of the law through the individual facts of a case. With that in mind,
let’s say Bob and Jan have been married for twenty one years. They have had a long, illustrious, and productive marriage. The day after they tied the knot, Bob incorporated his business. The business offers guided tours through the bayous outside of New Orleans on cutting edge ATVs. These ATVs are specially equipped to traverse both ground and water, which is ideal for the area he gives tours in. As part of forming his business, Bob took out a large loan to buy the ATVs and to also help with other startup costs. The loan was for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Over the past twenty years, Bob’s business has been very successful. While he started with a fleet of twelve ATVs, he has since bought another twelve.
Jan has also been very successful. After she married Bob she went to law school and got her law degree. Subsequently, she took the Louisiana bar exam. After failing it twice, Jan finally passed in 1996. Almost immediately she landed a job at a big law firm in New Orleans practicing among several divorce attorneys. She is still an associate at this time, but she expects to make partner in the next year or two.
Lately, Jan and Bob’s marriage has been on the rocks. They are both very stressed from their jobs, and they haven’t had a lot of time to hang out together. When they do find time to spend together, it is at a house on Lake Pontchartrain. The house on the lake was purchased with money that Bob was given by his deceased father in a will. This is the second house that the married couple enjoys. The first is a house that they bought soon after their marriage in New Orleans.
Finally they decide that it is time to end their marriage. Because they have a good deal of property, and because their relationship has soured as of late, they cannot agree on a division of their assets. Thus, they engage they help of some divorce attorneys and the court system of Louisiana.
It is neither a good idea nor always possible to try and predict exactly what will happen in a hypothetical situation like the one we have above. However, there are a few bright line rules in Louisiana law which their divorce attorneys may use to indicate roughly the outcome of Jan and Bob’s dispute.
For example, Louisiana uses a “community property” legal framework when dividing assets between two spouses. This generally means that property acquired by the spouses through their skill or industry during the marriage is to be divided evenly between them. In our example, that will probably mean that Bob’s business, as well the assets of that business will be community property. The same will most likely be true for the money which Jan has earned from her law firm job.
One thing that is often not considered community property is an inheritance given to one spouse. In this case, Bob inherited money from his father, and turned around and bought a house with it. Just because that money was “changed” so to speak into another form of property (the house) divorce attorneys will likely argue that that does not change the classification of that property. It is likely that the house will be considered his separate property, and so he will not have to split it evenly with Jan.
The above is purely informational and not legal advice. Will Beaumont. New Orleans.
