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 grounds for allowing a marriage to be voidable, but there are some structural…
San Diego Divorce Court to Reopen Tuesday the 26th The San Diego County Superior Court (Family Law Division) has basically been closed since the middle of March, with the exception for the submission of paperwork to get an emergency temporary restraining order based on domestic violence or to get an emergency order regarding custody/visitation (and…
How is child custody decided in California in a divorce or paternity case? Normally, the answer can be found (at least in part) in California Family Code section 3040, which states, “the court shall consider, among other factors, which parent is more likely to allow the child frequent and continuing contact with the noncustodial parent”.…
If you’re considering a separation or divorce in California, you may be wondering what your monthly expenses and budget will look like after you separate your life and finances from that of your spouse. If you have agreed with your spouse that you will not be the parent with primary custody of your children, then…
A recent California Court of Appeals case from the Second District has clarified when separate property becomes community property, and when the community can expect to receive a portion of that property. In the case titled In re Marriage of Lafkas, John Lafkas had been a founding member of a partnership that held several pieces…
Did you know that in a California domestic violence case, a judge may order either side to pay attorney fees? In San Diego, the Court of Appeal may that abundantly clear in a decision that it ordered published earlier this month. Ruling 3-0, the appeals court upheld a decision by the trial judge to award $5,000.00…
Even after you’ve been doing this for a while (and yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the day I opened my practice), you can still be surprised by some of the things that happen in Family Court. For example, this past week, the California Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s order that the wife…
A surrogacy agreement, followed by an acrimonious divorce and ensuing lawsuits in three states, has led to a strange custodial assignment for one California infant. Sherri Shepherd, former panel member of daytime television talk show “The View,” entered into an agreement with a young waitress named Jessica Bartholomew for her to carry a child for…
How does a mother in southern California with primary physical custody of the parties’ eight year old daughter lose that custody? By behaving badly. At least that was the conclusion of a Riverside County judge who entered an order in August, 2013 awarding custody to the girl’s father, who resides in Idaho. And today, the…
One of the toughest decisions for a family law judge to make, here in California and probably anywhere else in the country, is whether to allow one parent to relocate with the minor children to a place significantly far away from the other parent. A California judge faced this situation recently in the case of…
