Q: my father just recently divorced and we've owned our property for 30+yrs, prior to his recent divorce&she lied& said
she paid taxes& the judge believed her lies with no proof of paying anything, which she never did& the judge gave her our property. And also my name is also on the property, its in mine and my fathers name, how can a judge give away something that my name is on also?? is that legal, how does this work i don't under stand??
A:
A couple things: you recognize that the property is also your father's? When you own stuff with another person as joint tenants, the entirety of the property can stand for the debt of either tenant. This is a big reason why most lawyers and financial professionals advise people not to jointly own stuff with anyone other than a spouse. So from that perspective, I see your point that you effectively got the short end of the stick here. But it's legal all the same, because the risk of owning property like that is that one person may get into something that the other person has no control over.
As to proof....well, without having been there, it's hard to say what was said or presented in court, and whose right. What I can say is that in civil matters, it's up to either party to refute allegations. Just as she may not have presented any proof that she did pay anything, as the spouse, it's presumed she contributed to the household, making the property a marital asset; the burden of production actually shifts, and it would have been on your father to refute her claims through proof of his own.
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