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California determines child support by an algebraic formula that looks at essentially four things: the payor’s income; the custodial parent’s income; the number of children; and the amount of time each parent spends with a child. But what if the custodial parent, who is usually the parent who receives child support, is not working but…
How long does spousal support (i.e., alimony) last? That’s a question I get a lot. And the answer is it could be a long time, especially if the marriage has been for over ten years. The law in other places may be different, but in California, a marriage that has lasted over ten years is…
As California family law lawyers, we’re trained to tell our clients that California is a no-fault state. And that’s true. You can get a divorce for just about any reason, provided either you or your spouse has lived in California for at least six months and the county of filing for at least three months.…
When divorced parents suffer a cut in pay or a job loss, they often are entitled to a reduction in any child support that they have been ordered to pay. After all, child support in California is almost always based on a computer formula that looks at basically four factors: the number of children; the…
I remember a case I had years ago where the alleged victim of domestic violence obtained a temporary restraining order but then engaged in consensual sex with the alleged perpetrator before the hearing where the judge would decide whether to make a temporary restraining order permanent. Based on the incidence of sex, the judge dissolved…
Is a California judge allowed to deny child visitation to a father even if the visitation is supervised. Answer: yes. That’s the message from the Court of Appeal in In re T.M., which was decided last month but certified for publication this week. In T.M., a seven-year-old boy’s mother had died. Years went by, but…
A judge makes an order for child support. But it later turns out that the child is not living with the parent to whom the child support is supposed to be paid. Is that fair? Is there anything a court can do, or does it even matter? The answers to some of these questions were…
California Family Code section 3044 says that a parent who has committed domestic violence against the other parent within five years is not allowed to have sole –or even joint– physical or legal custody of the parties’ children, unless the perpetrating parent proves by a preponderance of the evidence that he or she should, in…
When I started law school 26 years ago, I had no idea what the word “impute” means. Maybe that explains my SAT scores. Anyway, a law professor explained that the word means “to bring into the reckoning”. I am not sure if that’s the best way to describe the word, but in family law, we…
When abuse occurs between two unmarried people who are not related to each other and who have never had children together, California Family Law Courts only have power to issue a restraining order if the individuals have a “dating relationship”. Most people can figure out when people are dating or not, but it can be…
