1.8 Property
In this Section
The petitioner's recommendation for the division of property is set forth
below.
Shown in Figure 1, the dialog presents you with the options, "The
division of property should be determined by the court at a later date."
or "The petitioner's recommendation for the division of property is set
forth below."
Figure 1
For this demonstration, we will select the latter, "The petitioner's
recommendation for the division of property is set forth below."
After we make our selection, additional selections and options are presented in
the dialog window, see Figure 2.
Figure 2
Itemize Items
With the above selection, two new option boxes are added to the dialog . Both with
titles in red (one for the petitioner and the other
for the respondent), as well as the "Other:" question, which
is shown below the petitioner's option box in Figure 2.
To demonstrate how these work, we will select "Itemize items"
for the petitioner, see Figure 3, and select the "Paragraph"
option for the respondent, see Figure 4. We will also add
information to the "Other:" question to show how the input
is processed, see Figure 5.
NOTE: If your client and their spouse have separated and already
split their property, you can select Paragraph and use
language as such: All personal and household items currently in his/her possession.
Information added in these paragraphs will not be shown in the "Findings
of Fact and Conclusions of Law" but will in the
"Decree".
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6 below, shows the table that appears when we select "Itemize
items" for the petitioner.
Each item we enter has a drop-down-list where you must select either "Community"
or "Separate" property for each item. This selection
is required so that the program can default your responses into the correct paragraph
(2.8 Community Property & 2.9 Separate Property)
of the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.
The checkbox following the drop-down-list is whether you want to include the item
in the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, by default the box
is checked each time you enter a new property. Usually you would only unselect the
item when dividing property, see Dividing Property
to understand this checkbox.
Figure 6
For the petitioner we itemized her property as shown in Figure 7.
You may add, as many lines of property as needed there is no limit. If you need
to use an exhibit, see Using Exhibits section below.
Figure 7
For the respondent we are using the "Paragraph" option as
shown in Figure 8. By default when you select the Paragraph option,
the program adds the following language, "All personal and household items
currently in his possession." or "...her possession", depending on
the gender of the respondent. You can accept the default language or highlight it
and change it. You can cut and paste information from a text document into any field
in the program. The program also has a spell checker, see End of
Interview.
Figure 8
Using the Other Option
For this demonstration we use the Other option to describe additional
information explaining an agreement the parties have regarding the home. As shown
in Figure 9, we added the following: "Petitioner shall refinance the property
at 123 Main St, Seattle, WA within 6 months of the date of the final decree and
pay to the respondent the sum of $50,000 as her share of the equity in the property."
Figure 9
Shown in Figure 6 when we select "Yes" for
the Other question an additional question with checkboxes are added
to the dialog as shown below in Figure 10. By default the
selection, "None of the Above" is selected to the question,
'Add "Other" to the "Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law"?'
Figure 10
Dividing Property
One option for dividing property such as a Boeing retirement account is to list
the Boeing 401 retirement account in property for petitioner and respondent and
explain the division. Then unselect the "Include in Findings"
from either the petitioner or the respondent's listing so that it does not duplicate
in the "Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law".
Using Exhibits
As shown in Figure 6, at the top of the dialog , an additional question
that is defaulted to "No". This question, "Select
'Yes' to use an Exhibit:" is shown below in Figure 11.
Figure 11
Figure 12 shows an additional textbox added to the dialog when selecting
"Yes" to the above question. By default, "A"
is added to this textbox but you may change this to your needs. The exhibit
is added to the end of the petition as shown in the Document Preview
window in Figure 13.
Figure 12
Figure 13
Figure 14 below, shows Paragraph 1.8 Property as it appears in the Document Preview
window.
Figure 14
Document Preview
In this demonstration, we will not use the Exhibit option as
demonstrated above being there are so few items listed in paragraph 1.8 Property.
Figure 15 below shows the document in the Document Preview window. If you need to
review the help section for the Document Preview tab, see
1.1 Identification of Petitioner.
Figure 15
Continue to 1.9 Debts and Liabilities...