The process of going through a divorce is obviously difficult, and all too frequently an ugly experience. Inevitably there are always reasons why spouses feel that they need to fight tooth and nail to “take their spouse to the cleaners”. While we understand the anger, fear and resentment that can accompany a divorce, focusing on [...]
In the typical stepparent adoption case, the stepparent wants to adopt his or her spouse’s child born in a previous relationship or marriage. Oftentimes this is an extension of terminating parental rights of one of the parents, and actually is often a necessary step in moving to terminate a non-custodial parent’s rights. California courts take [...]
Oftentimes a divorce is a threat to the survival of a family business. After all, getting through a divorce is an emotional and difficult process all on its own. The stakes are raised when a family business is involved, for both the divorcing spouses as well as any non-family members who are deeply involved in [...]
When the media reports a celebrity couple has split up, such as Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries, or Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, there is inevitably a flurry of speculation regarding whether there was a prenup in place, or if someone is going to lose a good chunk of their wealth. A prenuptial agreement is [...]
Sometimes after a divorce, it’s easy to focus on healing emotionally, and let financial issues and money matters take a back seat. Though healing emotionally is certainly an important part of the post-divorce process, it is important to address money matters promptly, since the financial choices you make after a divorce can have lifelong effects, [...]
Domestic violence is a serious issue that is shockingly prevalent in California. According to the California Women’s Health Survey (CWHS), approximately 40% of California women experience physical intimate partner violence in their lifetimes. And, according to the California Department of Justice, there were 174,649 domestic violence-related calls for assistance in 2007 (the most recent year [...]
Spousal support is the term used to describe the payments, or transfer of money, from one spouse to another after divorce. Spousal support is also called spousal maintenance, and was once exclusively referred to as alimony. Today, these three terms are used interchangeably. Spousal support laws were originally created in the U.S. to protect a [...]
Divorce is usually ranked as the second most stressful life event, right behind the death of a spouse. For children, it has the potential to be a crisis that can turn their lives upside down. Fifty years ago, it was thought that virtually all children were negatively affected by divorce, possibly for the rest of [...]
When you are going through a divorce, you will likely spend a significant amount of time either in person with your attorney, or talking to your attorney on the phone (or both!). For this reason, the single most important piece of advice that we give potential clients is to choose an attorney with whom you [...]
Paternity testing has been around since the 1920’s, but it was based on blood typing back then, and was not very conclusive. In fact, blood typing could only eliminate 30% of the population from being the possible father, since blood typing basically was just determining which blood types would be impossible for the child to [...]
