Maine Marital Property FAQs

Where can I find the Maine laws about division of property in a divorce?

You can find Maine’s laws about division of property in a divorce in Maine Revised Statutes Title19-A § 953. You can read this statute on the Maine government website, here: http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/ .

What is marital property?

Under Maine law, the term "marital property" means all of the property you acquire after you get married except:

• property you acquire as a gift or inheritance
• property you acquire in exchange for property you acquired before the marriage or in exchange for property acquired by gift, bequest, or inheritance
• property you acquire after being legally separated
• property that you and your spouse legally agree is not marital property, and
• the increase in value of any nonmarital property.

How does Maine divide property in a divorce?

When a couple gets divorced in Maine the court divides the couple’s property. To do this, it figures out what property belongs to each spouse individually and what property is marital property. Each spouse gets his or her own individually owned property and the court divides of the marital property between the two spouses. To make a just division of marital property the court considers these three factors:

1. the contribution that each spouse made to the acquisition of the marital property, including contributions a spouse made as a homemaker
2. how much individual property each spouse owns, and
3. the economic circumstances of each spouse, including whether a spouse with custody of the children should get the house, or at least have access to the house.

What about property held in the name of only one spouse?

The court considers all property acquired by either spouse after the marriage and before a decree of legal separation to be marital property regardless of whether title is held individually or by the spouses in some form of coownership such as joint tenancy, tenancy in common, tenancy by the entirety, or community property.

How do I convince the court that property I acquired after I married is not marital property?

To convince the court that property you acquired after you got married should be considered your individual property instead of marital property, you need to show the court by “clear and convincing evidence” that the property is not marital property because it is property that:

• you acquired as a gift or inheritance
• you acquired in exchange for property you acquired before the marriage or in exchange for property acquired by gift, bequest, or inheritance.
• you acquired after being legally separated.
• property that you and your spouse legally agree is not marital property, or
• derives from the increase in value of nonmarital property.

Learn More About Divorce in Maine

To learn more about divorce works in Maine, go to web site of Maine’s Family Law Division. Or get more free legal information on the Maine Divorce and Family Law page on Divorcenet.com.