The following article is part two of an article written by Theodore Sliwinski. ESQ about New Jersey Divorce and is featured on New-Jersey-Lawyers.com The balance of this article will be published in proceeding days. Or you can read the entire article on New Jersey Lawyers.

5. For equitable distribution purposes, does the court take into consideration if only one of the spouses worked during the marriage?
The fact that one spouse may not have worked during the marriage is not particularly important. The whole concept of a marriage in New Jersey is that it is an economic partnership. Unless proven otherwise, the court will presume that both the husband and wife both made substantial financial and/or non-financial contributions to the acquisition of income and property during the marriage.
In a traditional marriage, if the wife did not work during the marriage, the court will then emphasize her marital duties and homemaking chores that she contributed to the marriage. The court will not try to put an economic value on the wife’s contributions to the marriage. The most important aspect in an equitable distribution case is to determine what assets were acquired during the marriage. The court will not try to put a value on each person’s individual contribution to the marriage
6. What assets are considered part of the marital estate for equitable distribution purposes?
Only assets that are “acquired during the marriage” are considered to be part of the marital estate. Any property that was acquired before the marriage is considered to be premarital property, and it is not subject to equitable distribution. “During the marriage,” is frequently interpreted as beginning the day the marriage ceremony took place, and ending the day when the divorce complaint was filed.
The concept of a marriage is that it is an economic partnership.
Therefore, if the parties have a separation agreement before the complaint for divorce is filed, then the partnership died on the date of the separation agreement, rather than the date when the complaint was filed. Any assets acquired during the marriage would be considered under equitable distribution up to the date of the separation.
In summary, only property that is acquired during the marriage is subject to equitable distribution. However, property that is acquired by one party in contemplation of their marriage before the marriage is also still subject to equitable distribution. The courts recognize that the “partnership” of marriage may begin even before the actual marriage ceremony through the purchase of an assets, such as a home. The spouse who does not have his/her name on the deed may be required to show that they were actively involved in making improvements to the home before and after the marriage.
Additionally, all property that is acquired during the courts of the marriage is subject to equitable distribution. This includes real estate, homes, pension proceeds, and any other tangible or real property assets. Even if the property was acquired in one spouse’s name, it is subject to equitable distribution as long as it was acquired during the marriage.
7. How will the marital property be distributed?
All property acquired by the parties during their marriage is subject to “equitable distribution.” The purpose of equitable distribution is to achieve a fair distribution of what the parties acquired during their marriage.
“Equitable” does not necessarily mean that the property will be divided one-half to each of the parties. New Jersey is not a so-called “community property” State, where this would necessarily be the case. In New Jersey, there is no initial presumption in favor of an equal division.
The theory is based upon viewing the marriage as a partnership or joint enterprise, so that even if one party technically acquired all of the assets through earned income, while the other was at home and not working outside the home, the court would still recognize that the marriage was, in fact, a partnership and that, but for the fact that the unemployed spouse was at home keeping the household for the family, the employed spouse would not have had the opportunity to earn the income for the marital partnership.
Thus, the identity of the person who actually earned the money becomes largely immaterial and, unless the parties can agree upon a fair distribution, the court would distribute all property in a manner that it deems “equitable.”

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