By Renee O’Quinn Getting married is the easy part. Staying married however is not all that easy. People break up and get divorced all the time. A successful marriage just doesn’t happen, there is work involved by both the husband and the wife. Working at it all the time, it’s not a miracle, it is the result of two individuals who have invested their time and soul into a strong marriage relationship for which Jean and Bill Spell, who have been married for 62 years, can attest to.
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More than two inches of rain fell on the dry, thirsty soil of Pine Grove Saturday night. I lay in my bed under a cozy red blanket and relished the sound of rain on the roof. I’m convinced that is one of the most pleasant sounds known to man. Intent on listening to the musical pelting, I’d forget to read my book for several minutes at a time, and not much makes me forget to read. Even as Larry and I rushed around to unplug the computers when the lightening worsened, we kept grinning like kids on Christmas morning. 
We finally got all our gear together and made it to the river by mid-afternoon. Getting the boat launched at the Flat Tub landing was a chore but a liberal application of internal bug repellant took care of the worry and aggravation. Finally, we were underway downriver to a deep hole where we knew there had to be a barrel of catfish waiting. We baited our poles and started the waiting game. Doctor P.U. Nasty, my partner, decided we needed to move up a little ways and put the brand new trolling motor in the water and touched the pedal. Within seconds a Flathead catfish, an invasive species, that weighed at least twenty pounds floated to the surface right by the boat and just lay there, belly up, waiting to be netted. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Doc wasted no time in netting the huge catfish and had no sooner netted the one when another floated up. 
After child custody and support, division of marital property is of utmost concern to my clients who are going through a divorce. In Georgia, this process is called equitable division of property with equitable meaning that which is fair, not necessarily that which is equal. To be sure, not all property is subject to division and the most important consideration is whether the particular property is characterized as separate or marital. Separate property is not subject to division by the Court. The best examples of separate property are those items that were inherited by one party or received as a gift or those items that were owned prior to the marriage. However, to the extent that separate property appreciates in value during the marriage, that increase may be divided by the Court. 
With the 2012 legislative session well under way, I want to update everyone about what’s going on at the Capitol.