Awareness of what may not be adjudicated in divorce proceeding
Not everything can be adjudicated in the divorce proceedings, the divorce lawyer shall let the client understand what may not be heard of a divorce proceeding, for example, a house purchased by the spouse which is registered with a name of one party’s parent can never be reviewed by court as it’s a property involving a third party whether the third party just happens to be on the name list for the reason of convenience. Also, if the house is registered under the names of the spouse only but it’s one spouse parents that paid for it entirely and the parents are now participating in the proceeding claiming for title of the house they paid for, there are two options for the parties: one option is that the parents claim for loan only where the spouse would be liable for paying back all the payments made by the parents of one spouse as joint debt, this is the only way the house can be disposed during the divorce proceeding. The other option is to initiate a new case for disposition of the house as the ownership is not ascertained for the divorce judge to rule as community property.
It’s very common that some property is registered under a third party, for example, there was a case in which a car is registered with a company and the company is jointly owned by a third party, even it is true that the car is been used and owned by the spouses only, it will not be adjudicated by the court. Similarly, even the property is truly owned by the spouse but under the name of the child, the court may not adjudicate it either. It is important for the lawyer to let the client be aware of this practice as it may not be the same as client expected.
