When a court tries a divorce case concerning property, the court will try to categorize property either as separate property or community property.

A spouse's separate property consists of:

The significance of separate property is that a court cannot divest a spouse of their separate property. Therefore, once a court determines that a particular piece of property is separate property, then it must set that property aside to the separate property owner. The burden is upon a spouse to prove that property is his or her separate property by clear and convincing evidence.

Community property consists of all property, other than separate property acquired by either spouse during marriage. Property possessed by either spouse during the dissolution of the marriage is presumed to be community property, unless the spouse can prove that it is their separate property by clear and convincing evidence. Community property consists of almost anything of value, such as real property, personal property, stocks, bonds, savings accounts, automobiles, retirement benefits, 401(k) accounts, IRA accounts, stock options, copyright royalties, patents, income, rental income, life insurance and virtually anything else of value.

Once the court determines that property is community property, then the court must divide the property. In dividing community property, the court is obligated to order a division of the estate of the parties in a manner the court deems "just and right", having due regard for the rights of each party and any children of the marriage. In dividing the community estate of the parties, the court typically takes into account one or more of the following factors:

As a practical matter, if the court has two people before it, with the same educational background, earning the same income, and having the same opportunities in the future, and no children, the court will divide the estate of the parties 50/50. As more facts favor one individual, then the court has a tendency to award that individual a greater percentage of the community property. For example, if the wife is clearly at fault in causing the marriage to break up, is young, and in good health, is earning substantial income, has an MBA, and expects to inherit a lot of money from her family, and the husband has only a high school diploma, suffers from deteriorating help, has a low paying job, and is taking care of the parties three children, then the husband could expect to receive a substantially greater portion of the community property than the wife. Property awards up to 90%, in very unusual circumstances, have been upheld by the appellate courts in Texas.

Many clients want to approach a divorce settlement insisting that they get 60%, 70%, or 75% of the community property; because they believe that the other party was at fault in the breakup of the marriage. Such an approach can make it very difficult to settle a case without trial. Usually the other spouse does not believe that he or she was at fault in the breakup of the marriage, or even if they were, they believe they were justified in engaging in the conduct because of the complaining parties approach to the marriage. Also, the courts frequently do not place the same degree of emphasis upon one particular issue as the clients frequently do. For example, while one party may clearly be at fault in the breakup of the marriage, the court will be weighing that issue against the issues of present earning ability, future earning ability, educational background of the parties, etc. Also, the courts frequently have a different perception of the value of the community estate, and that can substantially effect the court's division of property. For example, if the party who claims that the other one is at fault, believes that the equity in the house is worth $30,000.00, and is demanding 70% division from the court (or $21,000.00), the court may very well find that the equity in the house is only $10,000.00, and award the party not at fault only 60% of that equity ($6,000.00).

Of course, the vast majority of cases do not go to trial. While evaluating any settlement, the parties should take into account all of the factors that the court is going to take into account, when settling a case, there are other factors that have a significant bearing on the settlement. For example, if one party particularly wants the house, they should probably be willing to accept a lower percentage of the community estate in a settlement in order to make certain they get the house. There is absolutely no guarantee that the court will award a person the house. The court may very well decide that it would be better to sell the house, or award the house to the other spouse.