On March 1st, the County of San Diego launched a One Day Divorce Program in the San Diego County Superior Court. The program is intended to streamline the divorce process for couples who are unrepresented by legal counsel and do not have any contested issues to resolve in their divorce. In order to participate in…
A married couple was found dead in their home earlier this month in Oceanside in northern San Diego County. The deaths are being called a murder-suicide, attributed to the upcoming finality of a pending divorce. According to a neighbor, the couple had been married for seven years when the wife filed for divorce, ostensibly because…
In a decision issued Friday concerning property division in a divorce case, the California Court of Appeal held that it is permissible for a family law judge to order a spouse not to compete against a business awarded to the other spouse. But that is not the entire story. In the case of Greaux vs.…
California’s Family Code has long provided that a court may issue a domestic violence restraining order for disturbing the peace of the complaining party. Now, in a new case, the California Court of Appeal has added clarity to what “disturbing the peace” actually means. Accepting the reasoning of another appellate decision, this one from 2009,…
Going through a divorce in California — or anywhere else, for that matter– is painful enough, but what happens if you die during the process? According to the most recent opinion on the subject from the California Court of Appeal, Marriage of Martin, it’s not necessarily a problem. You can rest in peace. The facts…
Do you have to wait until the other side attacks you, before using physical force? Not always, the California Court of Appeal said in a Family Law case published last week. The case, J.J. vs. M.F., involved a domestic violence incident that occurred in October, 2012, involving, of all things, a dispute over a little…
You may have heard of something called an annulment but not be sure what it means. Although an annulment does end a marriage, it is not the same thing as a divorce. An annulment, or “nullity of marriage,” is only granted in the limited circumstances in which the marriage itself was not legally valid to…
When couples with children divorce, the issue of child custody is often the most important matter to resolve. Courts recognize the importance to children of having both parents play a significant role in their lives, and absent some compelling reason such as child abuse or abandonment, the courts usually favor some form of joint custody.…
Dorothy Maraglino, Louis Ray Perez and Jessica Lopez have been charged in the 2012 murder of Brittany Killgore in Fallbrook. Maraglino was pregnant at the time she was arrested and subsequently placed her newborn child in the care of Becky Zagha at the request of Perez, the baby’s father. Apparently, Zagha was to reside in…
For a brief period in 2008, California was only the second state in the country (after Massachusetts) to grant marriages to same-sex couples. The law was quickly overturned by the passage of Proposition 8, however, and the issue was up in the air for years as Prop 8 wound its way through the judicial system…
