Mississippi Family Law Blog

Who decides who gets what property in a Mississippi divorce?

The easy answer is that if you and your spouse can agree, then each of you have a say in how your property will be divided. That is how it works in the perfect world. Yet, many times, spouses are unable or unwilling to agree on how to split their assets as one spouse usually thinks they are entitled to more property than the other. So what happens? The chancellor will decide and is guided by case law in Mississippi.

Property division in Mississippi divorces has evolved over the years. For many years, Mississippi followed the “title” theory of property division. Under this system, the person who held “title” to the property received the property in a divorce. So if a husband held title to all the family property, a wife staying at home raising the children and carrying for her husband could end up with little property at the time of divorce even though she participated in the accumulation of wealth. This system had obvious inequities.

Although Mississippi followed the title system for many years, it evolved over the last 20 years trying different methods to minimize those inequities such as using alimony to offset one spouse's disproportionate share of property. Finally, in 1994, the Mississippi Supreme Court lay to rest the “title” system by adopting the system of “equitable distribution.” Note that I said “equitable distribution,” not “equal distribution.” There is a difference.

In coming posts, I will discuss the “equitable distribution” system of property division in Mississippi divorces.