The Pereira approach is a method of valuing the separate property from the community property

Community property

Community property is a marital property regime that originated in civil law jurisdictions and is now also found in some common law jurisdictions...

 in mixed ownership divorce

Divorce

Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...

claims. Basically, the Pereira approach involves figuring out how much of the increase in the value of the business was due to normal capital appreciation of the initial separate property investment, subtracting that amount out, and classifying that amount as community property. The "Van Camp" approach attempts to figure out the reasonable value of the spouse's service to the business, subtracting that amount out, and classifying the rest as separate property.