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San Diego Family Law Judge Becomes Chief Justice In 2013, attorney Patricia Guerrero was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to be a judge for the San Diego County Superior Court. She started off in one of the family law courtrooms and from there her rise to stardom has been astronomical. Shortly after 2013, Judge Guerrero…
Vulgarity Gets Lawyer in Trouble A recent incident in San Diego County Superior Court is a reminder of an older California Court of Appeal case, People v. Chong, wherein the Court stated, “it is vital to the integrity of our adversary legal process that attorneys strive to maintain the highest standards of ethics, civility, and…
Bigamous Marriage May be Valid in Another Country but still void in California California allows parties in family law to argue –instead of doing through a divorce—that their marriage was never valid in the first place or is at least voidable by one who wishes the marriage not to be recognized. Not only are there…
Judge Reversed for Awarding 50 percent visitation in Domestic Violence Case When a California family law judge issues a domestic violence restraining order, the person being restrained is not allowed to have sole –or even joint—custody of the parties’ children – unless that restrained person overcomes the presumption contained in Family Code section 3044 that…
California Court Says Prenuptial Limitation on Spousal Support Unenforceable Will a California prenuptial agreement be enforced at the time of divorce even if the judge thinks it was unfair? The answer is unclear because a lot of things are unfair. But if the prenuptial agreement (also known as a premarital agreement) is downright “unconscionable” at…
Andy Cook Named Top Family Lawyer The Los Angeles Daily Journal has selected Andy Cook as a “Top Family” lawyer for 2022. In a supplement to today’s edition of the newspaper, The Daily Journal chose Cook and 20 other California family law attorneys for recognition. This is the first time that the Daily Journal has…
The Dos and Don’ts of California Spousal Support Orders Must a California divorce judge make express findings on each of the factors to be considered in ordering spousal support (the “4320 factors”)? Not necessarily as we learned in a recent California Court of Appeal case. The case, In re Marriage of Tal Kahan and Scott…
The Consequences of Domestic Violence in California Divorce Cases What does domestic violence have to do with child custody? At least in California, the answer is “a lot”. We learned this once again recently when the California Court of Appeal, in a case called Noble v. Superior Court, granted emergency relief in a divorce case…
How to Calculate income in California Divorce Cases How do you figure out what someone earns? In California family law cases, this is information that is absolutely necessary to calculate guideline child support and guideline spousal support. In most cases, it is sufficient to just look at the person’s pay the past 12 months, but…
Change in Leadership in San Diego County Superior Court Family Law Division An email from earlier this Saturday quotes San Diego County Superior Court family law supervising judge Margo Lewis Hoy as saying that both she and assistant family law supervising judge Edlene McKenzie are retiring in less than two and a half months. Per…
