Mark Ashton, a partner in our Exton (Chester County), Pennsylvania office and the editor of our Pennsylvania Family Law Blog, wrote a terrific post of the valuation of personal property on that blog. 

To read the entirety of Mark’s post, click here.

In New Jersey, and probably elsewhere, the last things that judge’s really want to get involved in is the division of personal property.  In most cases, the time spent wont justify it.  Some of the ways that personal property issues are resolved are as follows:

1) the alternate selection method (i.e. each party alternates picking until there is nothing left)

2) one party makes two supposedly equal lists and the other party gets to choose the list they want.

I have also heard of cases where, for a particular item or items, the parties had an auction between themselves on the item (particularly when the cannot agree upon a value.)

The bottom line is that these issues are best resolved between the parties, acting reasonably and rationally.