Orange County Family Lawyer

California Divorce Attorney

Family law cases are emotionally fraught and can become financially draining if not well-managed. A good family law attorney knows when to assert your rights and how protect your interests in a way that reaches lasting resolutions without breaking the bank.

Legal Services in Orange County

Family Law is the most sensitive and personal area of law. It is important that your lawyer is skilled, experienced, and knowledgeable about the California Family Code and recent cases. It is just as important that your lawyer gets to know you and your unique situation.

For most people, a Family Law case is the only time they have ever needed to hire an attorney or step into a courtroom. It is important to hire the right attorney - one that understands your goals and objectives and can formulate a plan to reach your best outcomes without shocking or unexpected legal fees.

Getting a Divorce in California

On paper, getting a divorce is a straight forward practice. There are many online services and non-attorney professionals that can help guide you through the nuts-and-bolts of filling out all the paperwork for a divorce.

In reality though, getting divorced involves so much more than checking boxes on a standardized form. In a marital dissolution, you are dissolving a legal entity, much like a corporation. This requires careful planning, strategic thinking, and a strong comprehension of your rights and responsbilities. A good divorce attorney knows how to set their clients up for a successful and peaceful life-after-divorce.

Divorcing with Children: Two types of Custody

In a divorce, nothing should come before the children. Fighting over custody is a difficult thing to do and in every case the kids are best served when parents can reach agreements and co-parent effectively.

In a perfect world, custody issues would stay out of the courtroom.

In the real world, when custody is at issue there is nothing more important than having an attorney that can help make sure you have a robust custody plan, whether by agreement or by a judge's order, that sets your children up for success and clearly outlines each parent's rights and responsbilities.

Child custody in Calfornia is split in two distinct legal concepts:

• Legal Custody: This determines who makes the decisions about your child's health, safety, and welfare. Courts have a strong preference for making sure both parents get a joint say in their child's best interests, but there are times where one parent's decision-making is so troublesome, that the other is awarded sole legal custody.

• Physical Custody: This is about who the child lives with, how often the child sees both parents, and what holidays each parent gets with their child. Again, courts have a strong preference for making sure there is a relatively equal split, but the best interest of the child is always the paramount concern.

Dividing Property in a California Divorce

There are generally two types of property in a divorce, Community Property and Separate Property. Separate property is usually property that you had either before marriage, were gifted, inherited, or bought with separate funds. Community property is usally all property that you acquired during marriage.

Dividing property in a divorce can either be the easiest piece of the puzzle, or the trickiest. The law in this area is not black-and-white and there are many exceptions and ways in which property that you thought might be your separate property is actually community property, or property that you thought might be community property turns out to be your ex's separate property.

It is important to understand the full picture to make sure you are getting everything you are entitled to.

Who pays spousal support in California?

Spousal support in California is meant to ensure that both parties are on relatively equal footing and are able to maintain the marital standard of living. In a divorce, there are two types of support:

• Temporary Spousal Support: This type of support, formally known as pendente lite support, is meant to support a spouse throughout the pendency of a divorce case. Temporary support is meant to maintain the status quo.

• Permanment Spousal Support: This type of support is meant to allow both spouses to achieve the marital standard of living, while also recognizing that each person has a duty to become self supporting.

In determining permanment spousal support, courts balance a variety of factors, such as:

• Income
• Expenses
• Standard of Living
• Age
• Health
• Career, Skills, Education
• Length of marriage
• History of Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence Restraining Orders

Domestic Violence in California can take several forms:

• Hitting
• Stalking
• Sexual Abuse
• Threatening
• Cyber-stalking
• Financial Abuse

This is an especially sensitive area of law that can greatly impact the rest of your divorce. It is important to have an attorney that understands your needs to help you navigate this highly consequential area of law.

Child support

Child support cases can be complicated and involve a number of ever-changing variables. In most cases, child support is always on the table. A good family law attorney knows how to present your case in the most favorable light to secure a child support order that is financially beneficial for you.

Determining child support often requires a deep dive into the other party's income or ability to earn an income. An attorney with a strong grasp of the California Discovery Code can force the other side to give up information that they would not normally volunteer on their own.