La Jolla-ca

Child custody and visitation, whether brought as a stand-along proceeding or included in a dissolution or parentage proceeding, is a decision that will be made by a judge, or through an agreement between the parents, as to who will have primary responsibility for the child(ren) and when each parent will have parenting time. In an initial court proceeding on custody and visitation, the court will primarily focus on the best interest of the children in deciding what the custody arrangement should be. The court will focus on the health, welfare and safety of the child(ren), whether they have been subject to abuse by either parent or whether they have witnessed it, and whether there is a history of drug or alcohol abuse by either parent.

Child support in California is based on the income of the parties. The Family Code broadly defines income so that many sources are properly considered as income available for support. The income for each party, along with the estimated time share is used in the guideline calculation for support, which is presumed to be the correct amount of support payable for support of each child. Dissomaster is the computer program the courts use in San Diego to compute support.

A divorce in California is referred to in the Family Code as “dissolution of marriage.” The concept is the same, as is the form to file to start the proceeding. Where you live and how long you have lived there will matter when determining whether you are eligible to file for divorce. When petitioning for dissolution of marriage, the party filing needs to meet the residency requirements, six months in the State and three months in the County, at the time the action is filed, in order for the court to have jurisdiction to address your matter.

The Honorable Thomas Trent Lewis, the presiding judge of the Family Law Division of the Los Angeles Superior Court describes Domestic Violence this way: All violence is abuse, but not all abuse is violent. By this, he intends to convey that there are ways by which a person’s sense of peace and tranquility is disturbed that do not look like physical battery or assault. Sending frequent and unwanted text messages or emails or threatening to reveal or actually revealing intimate details about a person is domestic abuse and if it is conduct that can be restrained it is subject to orders under the Domestic Violence Prevention Act.

Whether a person will be found to be a parent of a child is less a matter of biology than it is of acting like a parent—receiving a child into your home and holding the child out as your own. Family law gives significant weight to the relationships forged between a person acting as a parent and a child. Presumed parents can be fathers or mothers and the law has changed and continues to emerge to encompass a broadened definition and understanding of family. Courts are called upon to resolve competing claims of parentage between a person who has a biological relationship to the child and a person who voluntarily signed a declaration of paternity, a legal form wherein a person claims parentage. Further, under Family Code section 7612, three people may be found to be parents of a child.

California is a community property state and, therefore, property acquired during marriage by married persons is presumed to be community property. If a party has assets or a family business in which he or she does not want the community to gain an interest, then the way out of the community property system is an agreement to manage property acquired during marriage in another way. Pursuant to the Uniform Premarital Agreement Act (codified in Family Code sections 1600-1615), premarital agreements must be timely, allowing an opportunity for counsel to review any proposed agreement. Depending on the terms of the agreement, failure to allow enough time to hire counsel to review an agreement may make the agreement unenforceable and full disclosure of all property is required unless there is a waiver. As a matter of practice, counsel should be utilized by both parties entering into a premarital agreement to ensure rights are protected or knowingly waived.