From The blog

Family Code 2640 allows a party who uses separate property money (money either acquired before the marriage or through some separate property source, such as inheritance) to acquire property. What this means is that party who, for instance, takes $50,000 he or she had saved before the marriage, and pays it as the down payment on a community property residence, to be reimbursed for that amount...

Recordings in Domestic Violence Cases We all know that in California, the unlawful recording of confidential communications is a crime. This usually means that recorded conversations in private between two parties are not admissible in court. However, there are some exceptions to this rule, which can be very important. First, if the communication threatens actual violence, there is an exception...

Renewing A Restraining Order: Reasonable Fear of Future Abuse Restraining orders may be renewed before expiration by application to the court stating the reasons for the request for renewal. What the court will for is whether there is a reasonable fear of future abuse. The more serious the underlying conduct, the more likely the court will find fear of future abuse is justified. The recent case...

What Happens When A Party To A Divorce Dies? With the statistical rise of later-in-life divorces and court-congestion and delays, the issue of the death of a spouse happens more often than you might think. When one party to a divorce dies, the first question is whether or not the dissolution (called status) has been taken. If so, then the court has the power to finish the property division. An...

When Can A Grandparent Ask For Visitation? This is a question that has changed answers more times in the past 25 years than any other issue I can think of. California has tried to have a successful grandparent visitation statute, but there have been major issues with constitutionality. The United States Supreme Court has narrowly limited such statutes, ruling that parental rights trump...

What Happens When A Juvenile Court Issues A Custody Order Then Dismisses The Case? When a child is taken into juvenile court and judged a dependent of the court, there are usually three ways the case can end: 1) parental rights can be terminated and the child adopted, 2) a guardianship can be granted to a third party, and 3) the child can be returned to the parents upon completion of certain...

Rebutting the Family Code Section 4325 Domestic Violence Presumption: In re Marriage of Brewster and Clevenger (2020) If a party who is asking for spousal support has committed a documented act of domestic violence against the other spouse (the party they are asking to pay spousal support) there is a rebuttable presumption that such support is inappropriate. However, this presumption can be...

When Should A House Be Appraised In A Divorce? A house should be appraised as close to trial or settlement as possible. This is due to Family Code Section 2552, which requires assets to be valued as close to trial as possible to accomplish an equal division. The purpose of this code section is to assure that one party isn’t awarded a property at an incorrect value. For instance, if the real...

Family Loan Repayments In Divorce When people are married, they often receive help from family members. A parent will often pay for the down payment for a house, to make a loan to pay off credit card debt, or any number of other reasons. The problem becomes, however, after a separation and divorce is filed, whether or not that loan will have to be repaid out of community assets. To put the...

The general answer to that question is no, but with a fairly significant exception. If one party to a marriage is simply a spendthrift, spending more money than the other, even without consent, that debt is still community debt and money used is simply spent. However, California Family Code Section 1100 provides that “A spouse has a claim against the other spouse for any breach of fiduciary duty...