QUESTION

Can a husband bring criminal charges against his wife, who he has decided to divorce, for stealing when all of their accounts were co-mingled?

Asked on Nov 08th, 2011 on Divorce - Georgia
More details to this question:
N/A
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1 ANSWER

  As with most legal issues, the answer depends on the specific factual circumstances.  If I understand you correctly, you are saying that you are joint account owners (e.g. both listed as owners of a checking account), and that he is alleging that you have committed theft by simply removing funds from that account.  Based on that limited information, my answer would be that you could not be prosecuted for that.  However, there are other issues that you need to be aware of. Specifically, if you have made withdrawals from a joint account, without justification, your husband may allege that you have wastefully dissipated marital property.  This can substantially affect your rights regarding the division of marital property.   Georgia uses the "equitable distribution" approach to divide property upon divorce. Under this approach, each spouse takes their separate property and the court divides the property acquired during the marriage on an equitable basis.  However, when one spouse frivolously spends or dissipates a marital account or other asset, he/she will be deemed to have wastefully dissipated that asset.  Under the equitable distribution approach, if a marital asset is no longer in existence because one spouse wasted it, the Courts can require that spouse to pay the other spouse his or her equitable share in the asset. The Court can also order the payment of spousal maintenance to help to alleviate the effect of wasteful dissipation.     
Answered on Nov 18th, 2011 at 11:54 AM

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