How long will my case take? This process is confusing. Why am I doing all of this work up front? Common questions I hear from family law clients and rightly so. Dissolving a marriage does sometimes take longer than all of us would like. The process does feel confusing because so many things are happening at once and need to happen at once. Doing work up front means preparation for settlement or trial and swifter preparation for settlement or trial means drafting and entering a judgment more quickly. To help my visual learners out there, I prepared a decision tree of sorts to show the steps in a divorce case. Let’s discuss them.

Garnishing wages is not as easy as some think. This is a good thing, because we want obstacles before this process is put in place. Once it is in place, it takes time to remove a garnishment order, which is why some obstacles are good. Here are the basics of the process.

Legal custody is essentially the right and responsibility of making decisions regarding a child’s health, education and welfare. Sometimes, failure to agree on legal custody issues during a marriage or relationship may lead to the end of that marriage or relationship. So, it makes sense to have the hard and challenging discussion about legal custody issues before getting married and certainly before having children.

I believe every person, even those in relationships and marriages, should work; part-time or full-time. My reasoning is two-fold and founded upon the high cost of living in today’s world.

Potential family law clients in California will invariably recite during the initial consultation that they were told by a friend, neighbor, estate planning attorney…etc. that they cannot move out of the family home before or during their divorce or paternity case. The reasons given are a range of their ownership interest in the house will be forfeited (not true, not California law), they will be viewed as abandoning their house and face legal consequences (not true, not California Law), they will be viewed as abandoning their family and lose parenting time if child custody is an issue (not true, not California Law).The truth is, you can and probably should leave the family home in most situations.

Continuous cash gifts from the parents of a spouse to that spouse or from the parents of a co-parent to that co-parent are magical. The cash gifts keep coming month after month with regularity and then, enter a family law action, they suddenly disappear like a butterfly with no promise to return. Were the cash gifts swept off in a breeze? Were they here for a few months? Or, did a parent get a deposition subpoena, lawyer up and decide to stop making the cash gifts?

On appeal, wife challenges the trial court’s characterization of a majority of the cash and securities held in commingled accounts as husband’s separate property.Specifically, wife attacks a detailed tracing analysis performed by husband’s expert witness, upon which the trial court relied. The Court of Appeal concluded that the tracing is valid and constituted substantial evidence in support of the judgment. (Ciprari, supra, 32 Cal.App.5th at p. 89.)

I use the term “ode” loosely here as this is obviously not a poem. But, a highlight of a legal reality. Welcome to imputation of income; the ability of a Court to determine that a party can earn a certain amount of money each month, thus, reducing and/or eliminating child and spousal support payments.

In Smith v. LoanMe, Inc. (2019) Super.Ct.No.RIC1612501, I am not impressed with the facts of the case; but, I am impressed with the reasoning and the conclusion. Jeremiah Smith filed a class action complaint against LoanMe, Inc. (LoanMe), alleging that LoanMe violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act (Privacy Act). Specifically, California Penal Code section 630, et seq. Smith alleged that LoanMe violated California Penal Code section 632.7 by recording a phone call with Smith without his consent while he was using a cordless telephone, and he claimed that a “beep tone” at the beginning of the call did not constitute sufficient notice that LoanMe was recording the call. (Id. at p.1)

In In re Marriage of Andreen (1978) 76 Cal. App.3d 667, 673 the Court of Appeal gave one of my top favorite lines in a family law case: “It is much more realistic (and at least fair) to appraise the parties’ 1979 situation by measure of actual rather than prophesied 1979 facts.” The Court of Appeal was referencing the trial court’s decision to award $500 per month in spousal support to wife with an automatic reduction to $1 per month at the end of five years and automatic termination of spousal support at the end of ten years.

I present In re Marriage of Rosen (2002) 130 Cal.App.4th 808. In this gem of a case, we get a nice understanding of the significance of the goodwill value in business valuations.

So often I tell people what area of law I practice, and I am met with rolled eyes, groans or comments such as family law is “just forms.” In my opinion, family law is the most difficult area of law to practice because it encompasses all areas; and, it is certainly more than “just forms.” Here is an example of a case illustrating family law’s complexity and highlighting our right to freedom of speech.

I had the good fortune, and open mind, to stumble across a book published in 1991 and entitled American Bar Association Section of Family Law Ultimate Trial Notebook I. This book is truly an oldie and a goodie. Robert B. Moriarty, Esq., a family law attorney in New York at the time of publishing of this book, contributed an article entitled “The Family Law Negotiator: Successful Divorce and Family Law Settlements.” I had to tap the intellectual archives of second grade to remember how to cite to a source other than a case or statute, but, in an effort to avoid plagiarizing, I think I covered myself.

Bitter custody battles and malicious, atrocious and unfounded accusations are common in child custody cases. Declarations are written with spite, malice and outright disregard for the sanctity of preserving and protecting a normal childhood all in an attempt to punish the other parent for wrongs real and imagined. The only people punished by such behavior are the children. But these battles and accusations all set forth in declarations and made a part of the public record are not without consequence beyond what one would normally expect. Parents should take heed before embarking on such a path.

There are numbers of ways that an amicable divorce can take place. For example, mediation, collaborative law and where one party is represented by an attorney and the other party is not. I want to focus on the last option, as it is a way I have helped a high percentage of my clients get divorced for over a decade. Here is how it works in brief.

I remember my first day of Community Property class in law school like it was yesterday. My instructor rattled off a few impressive cases that were "guaranteed" to make the class more than just an entire semester dedicated to which spouse gets the house and which spouse gets the business. Enter In re Marriage of Rossi (2001) 90 Cal.App.4th 34. I think I was already asleep, or partially there, when I was rattled out of my stupor by my professor's description of the facts in the Rossi case: "because the wife failed to disclose that she won the lottery to the husband during their dissolution of marriage proceedings, rather than awarding the husband his one-half, the husband was awarded ALL of the lottery winnings!" The entire class was flabbergasted.

In re Marriage of G.C. and R.W. (2018) 23 Cal.App.5th 1, certified for partial publication, really challenges your cerebral cortex and highlights the complexity of modern-day divorce cases. Its also begs for a timeline, and a map.

Not surprisingly, my favorite court has released an outstanding video giving parents in family law matters tools they can use to reduce their conflict and optimize child-focused resolution to their child custody disputes. Here are some reasons why I like this video and some issues addressed that I think are important.

A few years ago, I was appearing before a local family law judge. After this judge called his calendar, he then shared with the attorneys, their clients and everyone else in the court room some recent updates in the law. He also shared that he spent the weekend on his hands and knees in his chambers with post it notes, pens and a large calendar putting together a parenting plan for three parents and their children.

People do interesting things with real property and deeds before and during marriage. They add people onto title, take people off title or change the form of title for real and imaginary reasons with or without the assistance of attorneys. Sometimes, this creates problems and, worse case scenario, the loss of property to one spouse in a divorce.