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Anne Arundel County
Meeting Location:
7310 Ritchie Highway, Glen Burnie, Maryland 21061 (410) 760-7339
Baltimore City
Office Meeting Location: 111 South
Calvert Street, Ste 2700, Baltimore, Maryland 21202 (410)
685-7339
Baltimore County:
10451 Mill Run Circle, Ste 400, Owings Mills, Maryland 21136
(410) 363-7339
Howard County
5044 Dorsey Hall Ste 205, Ellicott City,
Maryland 21042 (410) 740-7339
Prince George County:
6301 Ivy Lane
Suite 700, Greenbelt, Maryland 20770
(301)
474-7339
Montgomery County:
6701 Democracy Blvd. Suite 300 Bethesda, Maryland 20817
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“Dissipation may be found where one spouse uses marital
property for his or her own benefit for a purpose
unrelated to the marriage at a time where the marriage
is undergoing an irreconcilable breakdown.” Sharp v.
Sharp, 58 Md.App. 386, 401, 473 A.2d 499 (1984).
We have
defined
dissipation as expending marital assets “for the
principal purpose of reducing the funds available for
equitable distribution.” Jeffcoat v. Jeffcoat,
102 Md.App. 301, 311, 649 A.2d 1137 (1994).
Whether the use of
marital property to pay attorney's fees constitutes
dissipation.
In the case of
Allison v. Allison 160
Md.App. 331, 864 A.2d 191
the Court determined:
As a policy matter, attorney's fees should generally be
viewed as a legitimate expenditure of marital funds.
Since the law permits divorce, the law should permit
spouses to spend the funds necessary to pay for legal
services in divorce proceedings. Divorcing spouses
usually do not have their own separate funds to pay
their lawyers, so a rule that condemns the use of
marital funds for legal services simply does not make
sense.
The doctrine of dissipation was developed as a tool to
prevent and remedy economic misconduct that could
frustrate an equitable distribution of partnership
assets. Expenditures for legal services cannot be fairly
characterized as economic misconduct. On the contrary,
it should be viewed as entirely appropriate for people
facing marriage breakdown to obtain the legal advice and
assistance needed to equitably distribute marital
assets.
Furthermore, it wastes resources to require spouses
either to seek court permission before spending marital
funds to obtain legal assistance or to seek a
preliminary award of fees rather than spending the money
necessary to obtain counsel. The doctrine of dissipation
should remain available, however, to provide an avenue
for redress if one spouse spends an unnecessary or
unreasonable amount of marital funds on legal fees.
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After
a party who claims dissipation of marital assets
establishes a prima facie case that monies have been
dissipated, the burden shifts to the party who spent the
money to produce sufficient evidence to show that the
expenditures were appropriate. Where the evidence shows
that property was intentionally dissipated the
dissipated property will be treated as marital property.
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Practice Pointer:
When available have your clients pay your
retainer and fees from the pool of marital
assets. The net effect upon distribution of
marital property is that the opposing party is
also footing the bill for your services.
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1.8. Mil Marital Property Settlement
1 Mil Judgment Resolving Marital Property Issues
$425,000.00 Settlement for pinched nerve
$270,000.00 recovery for mild closed head injury
$350,000.00 for surgery to neck
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