Mark Oakley

Mark W. Oakley is an established litigation attorney concentrating on civil litigation, personal injury, construction law, and criminal and traffic defense. He also advises business clients, negotiates and drafts contracts, and handles a variety of litigation matters at all levels of the state and federal court systems. Mr. Oakley is trained and certified in the collaborative practice of law. Mr. Oakley is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law (J.D. 1987), and the University of Maryland, College Park (B.A. 1984). He is a member of the Maryland State Bar Association, the District of Columbia Bar, and the Bar Association of Montgomery County. He is admitted to practice before the Court of Appeals of Maryland, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Authored the winning brief in the case of 1986 Mercedes v. State of Maryland, a precedent-setting decision limiting the State’s power to forfeit private property.

University of Maryland - Baltimore

J.D. (1987) | Law

1984 - 1987

University of Maryland - College Park

B.A. (1984) | English

1980 - 1984

District of Columbia Bar

Member

1989 - Current

Maryland State Bar Association

Member

1988 - Current

Bar Association of Montgomery County

Member

1988 - Current

District of Columbia

District of Columbia Bar

Since 1989

Maryland

Since 1988

• Free Consultation
• Credit Cards Accepted
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• Contingent Fees
  I handle personal injury claims on a contingent fee basis, meaning if there is no recovery, you do not owe me a legal fee.

Q. If your wife gets money from the sale of her moms house, is the husband entitled to the money? Or is it just the wifes?

December 27, 2024

A: The answer to your question only really matters from a legal standpoint when you divorce. How the parties manage their money during marriage is entirely up to them. A spouse has no legal right to access their spouse’s inherited funds or to take gifts given only to them, if their spouse refuses.

When a spouse receives an inheritance or a gift from someone, it is not deemed marital property for purposes of divorce. It is deemed the separate non-marital property of that spouse.

However, if the inherited money is commingled with other marital funds (like depositing it into an account that also has funds deposited into it that were earned during the marriage), then it may become marital property that way.

Other ways to convert non-marital funds into marital property include using the inherited funds to make improvements to the marital home, which then converts the funds so used into joint marital property; or buying a home with the inherited funds and then using money earned during the marriage to pay the mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance and repairs. In these latter scenarios, in the event of divorce, the spouse who used their non-marital assets to acquire marital property can still argue that they contributed the largest share and ask the court to equitably divide that property to award a larger share to them.

Maryland is an equitable division state when it comes to divorces, not a strictly 50-50 state. But there are 10 listed factors to consider under the statute, and who earned or contributed the most in money is only one factor that can be outweighed by other factors. But equitable division only applies to “marital” property, not to non-marital property.

If a spouse wants to fully protect their inherited or other non-marital property (e.g., property they owned before the marriage) from being included in the definition of marital property at the time of divorce, then they should deposit any inherited cash into an account titled solely in their name, and save all records showing the source of funds and all statement balances since the account was set up showing no marital funds were ever deposited into that account—thereby insulating the account from claims that marital funds were later commingled with the inherited funds. Ditto for property owned prior to marriage. In the case of existing financial accounts that a spouse continues to make deposits to after the date of marriage, statements showing account balances in the month of marriage and thereafter should be scrupulously maintained, to allow tracing of funds.

If the spouse wants to withdraw part of the money from their inherited funds to use on marital expenses, that is fine, but anything they use the withdrawn money on will then become commingled marital property. If they use that money simply to buy themselves a new car titled solely in their name, then that car is also non-marital; however, beware that later using marital funds to pay for title, registration, insurance and repairs may give the other spouse a basis to argue the car has become marital property, at least to some extent. And again, saving records to prove the car’s purchase and other expenses only came from the inherited funds will be necessary to defeat a claim that marital funds were used to buy and maintain it.

In a divorce, the burden of proof to establish that certain property is non-marital is on the spouse making that claim. ... Read More

Q. I am the only one on contract- if something happens to me does wife still have to pay upkeep bills?

December 27, 2024

A: Wyndam, as in the hotel? If her name is on the hotel registry as a guest in the room, then the hotel contract probably provides that she is personally liable for the room charges regardless of whether you are the only one who booked and paid for the room to begin with. That’s a matter of contract language.

Even in the absence of formal contract language binding someone to the debt incurred, the law would allow the hotel to sue your wife for the fair market value of the room rental based upon a cause of action known as “unjust enrichment.” If someone knowingly receives a benefit from another who expects to be paid for that benefit—such as lodging at a hotel— then the law will hold the person receiving the benefit liable for the fair value of that benefit. That would have to be established in a court of law. I suppose your wife could argue that she was merely a guest of yours, invited to stay with you for free, and was unaware that the hotel would be expecting payment from her. But if you two checked in together as husband and wife, I think that argument would not impress a judge who heard it. ... Read More

Q. PWID felony was modified to pbj 3 years later. 3 years have passed since then. Does pbj affect firearms rights

December 27, 2024

A: A background check for a gun purchase will show a PBJ disposition that has not yet been expunged, and a PBJ is still deemed a conviction under federal law (which governs your right to own a gun). However, the PBJ disposition and all other record of the offense will be removed from the nationwide database used for the background check once your petition for expungement is granted and the process completed (about 60-90 days or so from the date the court’s order granting expungement is issued). You should receive a confirmation from Maryland’s CJIS office certifying that they have complied with the expungement order. That is the agency that deletes the offense from the database used for background checks. You should receive certification of compliance from other offices that have records related to the case (the clerk’s office at the court, the police department involved in the arrest, the department of parole and probation, etc.), but it’s the CJIS office you are looking for to know your record is really clear. ... Read More