Q: My husband and I are going to be separating soon. He bought the house before we were married. Since than we have bought
2 cars both are on his name. Am I entitled to 1 of the vehicles prior to the divorce proceedings?
A:
You do not indicate enough facts. It does not matter necessarily how things are titled but when those items were acquired. The relevant time periods are (a) before marriage, (b) during marriage or (c) after the date of separation but before divorce.
Anything acquired before marriage is separate property unless it was commingled (like the house was refinanced and your named was added to the deed) or unless you made substantial contributions (like if he had a shack and after you were married you helped improve the home). Assuming that you did nothing to substantially increase the value and it was not commingled then the house is his.
The cars, if they were bought after marriage are marital unless you had some kind of pre-or post-nuptial agreement.
I do not know the value of the cars or what other assets you and your husband owned or how long you were married or your ages and circumstances. Its not possible to say that you take one car and the husband gets the other.
The goal for the court is to equitably (fairly) divide the marital or divisible assets between the parties and there is a whole host of factors for the court to consider, some of which I outlined above. Giving you a car may be fair and equitable. I suggest that you get a family law attorney to review your situation with the attorney and hopefully come up with a settlement agreement that you and your husband can live with before you separate.
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