Hello again,

As a married person in Virginia, you have the legal right to possess and use any marital property (including the marital home) without restriction. So his threats to "put you out" are meaningless.

If you were to decide that the marriage is unsalvageable, Virginia divorce law has a system of property distribution known as "equitable distribution". What this means is it is a system to fairly divide the couple's marital assets with respect for both their monetary and nonmonetary contributions to the property and to the marriage.

The court determines the ownership of all "real and personal property." This term includes a wide variety of assets, including jewelry, the marital residence, other real estate, bank or credit union accounts, furniture, paintings or other art work, automobiles, business interests, and other types of property managed by both or either spouse during the marriage. Most future income and future assets, except for pensions, are not included in equitable distribution of property.

Virginia considers marital property to be of three basic forms:

• Property acquired by either party during the marriage that is not separate property
• Property that is part marital and part separate.
• Property whose title is held by both parties (however, this still may be proven to be separate or partly separate if it can be traced accurately and fairly to separate property).

Separate property includes:

1. All real and personal property acquired by either party before the marriage

2. All property acquired during the marriage by inheritance or gift from a source other than the other party

3. All property acquired during the marriage in exchange for or from the proceeds of the sale of separate property, provided it is maintained separately

Any income generated from separate property by the active efforts of either party is classified as marital.

Separate property can also become marital property in several ways, including the failure to maintain the property as separate, or commingling with marital property, in a way that is too complex or undocumented to trace back to its source. Assumed in these general rules is that any property gained by either party during the marriage was gained with the knowledge that it would become marital property.

Marital property, however, cannot become the separate property of either party without valid and specific agreements by the parties.

Pensions are marital property to the extent that they were earned during the marriage, before separation. The marital share is a percentage, based on a ratio of months of marriage in which they were earned compared to all months of unmarried or separated pension-earning. Courts usually divide the marital share in half. In some cases involving military or foreign service families, special federal laws apply about when courts can divide pensions, and how much each spouse can get. In contrast, when parties settle their cases out of court, they often provide that each will keep their own pension.

Also divided during the property settlements of a dissolving marriage are the debts the couple, or the separate spouses, have incurred.

Factors included in the court's division of marital debts include:

• The debts and liabilities of each spouse
• The basis for the debts and liabilities of each spouse
• The property used as security for the debts and liabilities of each spouse

The court can apportion and order payment of the parties' debts (either joint or separate) incurred before the dissolution of the marriage using the above factors. However, both spouses remain vulnerable to creditors for all debts incurred during the marriage, unless the creditor is willing to let one spouse refinance after the divorce.

I hope this gives you a better idea of your rights with regard to the marriage.

Thanks.

Matt