The issue of separate property comes up constantly in the cases that I handle, in any event. It’s one of the first things I want to talk about when I first interview the client, whether there’s any claims of separate property. This state is gonna default to community property unless you can really prove that you’ve got separate property and that becomes a big task. Unlike a lot of states we do not have a rigid 50/50 property distribution. The court can distribute the property in any manner that it wants.

And certainly, separate property with one party is gonna make a difference in how the division goes. In fact, in this state, in Washington, the court can actually take some of the separate property and give it to the other party if it thinks that that’s what’s necessary. So in some cases you have almost no community property because the couple has been living off of the separate property of the other party. Well, in that kind of case, when you get to the end of it, there is a good likelihood that some of that separate property is going to be awarded to the other spouse so that can be done, if it’s necessary, and the court takes all those things into consideration.