This rule acts as a bar or a cause for action. Its action to court in another court.

Res judicata is a procedural decision and judgment has already had his or her "day in court."

While most disputes after equitable distribution involve disagreements about the settlement, some other litigation following the distribution might involve claims unrelated to the property distribution, such as what are known as marital torts.

At one time, a husband and wife could not sue each other for harmful actions committed during their marriage, but now former spouses (often the wife) may bring marital torts (usually personal injury actions) in connection with domestic violence, the transmission of sexual diseases, psychological distress and emotion injury, slander and libel as well as dissipation of community property.

In general, these cases turn on the claims emanating from disputes between the parties support.

A action were not identical, thus res judicata did not apply. Estoppel did not protect the husband because he failed to show that he had relied on any representation she made during the divorce to his detriment. And the principal of waiver did not apply because there was no indication she intended to waive any claims in her divorce action.

Sometimes a disappointed party ties to outflank a court’s decision "with new theories grounded on property, contract, or corporate law"; but courts check these efforts with applications of other res judicata or collateral estoppel. For example, in a 1992 North Dakota case, the court turned back a former wife’s claim to back wages against her former husband’s business, which she raised after their 1988 divorce, because "...the wage claim was capable of being, and should have been raised, as part of the divorce proceeding."

A few courts have asserted that the parties have a tort claim during the divorce.

See also Equitable Estoppel; Marital Tort; Tort.