Family Law Blog

A 50 50 custody schedule divides the child’s time equally between two homes. California has no presumption in favour of it, and courts order it where it serves the child’s best interests and where the practical conditions support it. For parents in Orange County facing a custody case or trying to understand whether equal parenting […]

California divorce records are generally public. Anyone can walk into the county court where a case was filed, ask to view the court file, and read it. For individuals and couples in Orange County dealing with divorce, custody, support, or property issues, that makes it important to know what stays open to public view, what […]

The family home is usually the largest asset in a California divorce and the one people are most attached to. In California, who keeps the house in a divorce usually depends on whether the home is marital or separate property and, just as often, whether either spouse can actually afford to keep it; in many […]

Serving divorce papers in California means having an adult who is not a party to the case deliver court-stamped copies of the petition, summons, and related documents to your spouse using a legally accepted method, such as personal service, substituted service, notice and acknowledgment of receipt, or, with court approval, service by publication. For people […]

Divorce is financially frightening in a different way when you have not earned an income for years. The immediate questions are practical: how do I pay for anything next month, and what happens to a career I set aside a decade ago. California law addresses both, and understanding what it provides makes the divorce process […]

How much does a divorce cost in California depends almost entirely on one thing: whether you and your spouse agree. The legal work in an agreed case and a fought one differs by an order of magnitude, and so does the divorce cost. Here is what makes up the total, what drives it up, and […]

A parenting plan is the written custody and visitation agreement that becomes a court order. It sets out who makes decisions, where the child lives, and how time is divided across the year. The difference between a plan that works and one that generates years of conflict is almost entirely specificity. Vague plans require negotiation […]

A right of first refusal clause requires a parent who will be unavailable during their parenting time to offer that time to the other parent before arranging alternative child care. It sounds obviously sensible: more time with a parent rather than with a babysitter. In practice, a poorly drafted first refusal clause generates more conflict […]

Parents ask this in two situations: they have reconciled and no longer want the arrangement, or the receiving parent is willing to waive support in exchange for something else. The short answer is that no parent can cancel child support unilaterally. A child support order is a court order, and it remains binding until a […]

The FL-142 is the California form on which you list everything you own and everything you owe. Together with the income and expense declaration, it forms the mandatory financial disclosure that both parties must exchange in divorce proceedings. It is a legal document signed under penalty of perjury, and California treats omissions from it seriously. […]