A woman may be involved in a business enterprise with her spouse when the need for a divorce arises. In Texas and elsewhere this will raise issues of property division and will impact all of the financial issues that are presented during the divorce litigation. The woman may end up with a controlling interest in the business or she may be compelled to sell out her interest to the spouse as part of the settlement agreement.
Where there is no agreement, the ultimate decisions will be made by the family law court after a full trial of that and other property issues. In some cases, the woman’s spouse may have nothing to do with the business but may nonetheless claim a 50 percent interest in the assets according to community property principles. If the business was owned by the woman prior to entering into the marriage, and if the spouse is not active in the business, there will be less of an impact than if the business was started during the marriage and participated in by both parties.
In any event, the complexity of certain property division issues will be best understood if the party engages in an ongoing interchange of information with her family law attorney. Such an interchange will assure that the flow of information leads to informed decisions during the negotiations. In addition, such a process is inevitable in most instances due to the need to produce voluminous information and documents during the discovery process.
This will in itself demand a cooperative working relationship with the family law attorney’s office while obtaining and organizing the flow of information. This includes all of the financial details and documents requested by both parties during the discovery phase of the litigation. A Texas divorce may flow more smoothly where both parties have a communicative relationship with their respective attorneys during the vital process of attempting to negotiate a divorce settlement.