Child abuse may result in termination of parental rights via a court order that permanently severs the legal parent-child relationship if the court finds one or both parents to be unfit, or when one or both parents give up their parental rights so that an adoption can take place. Child Protective Services (CPS) are responsible for protecting children from abuse or neglect. CPS staff are required by law to investigate reports of suspected child abuse or neglect that meet the legal definition of child abuse or neglect.

Physical abuse includes any injury to a child that is not accidental (broken bones, bruises, burns, cuts and other injuries) or any action which could have seriously harmed the child but luckily did not (striking a child with a weapon, discharging a gun in the presence of a child, or other similar actions).

Emotional abuse includes making a child feel that they are not loved or that they are bad or have no value (demeaning or belittling a child, not allowing a child to have friends, name calling, and other similar behaviors). Domestic violence incidents may also be considered emotionally abusive to children.

Neglect may include not providing a safe home, food, clothing, or medical/dental care, as well as leaving a young child alone or with someone who is not able to care for him/her, driving while intoxicated with an unrestrained child in the car, etc. Failure to supervise older children can also be considered neglect.

Sexual abuse includes using a child for sex acts, taking pornographic pictures of a child, prostituting a child, or other types of sexual activity with a child. There are other actions that can be considered types of child abuse and neglect and, in each case, it must be considered whether the child’s health, safety, or welfare has been harmed or is at risk of harm.

California courts may terminate parental rights in different ways:

The child becomes a ward of the court when someone (usually CPS) reports mistreatment. Termination is involuntary when the court finds that the parent(s) have abused, neglected, or abandoned a child, and/or that the parents suffer from some mental or physical incapacity, including substance abuse, that prevents them from caring for the child.

The court may terminate with the consent of the non-custodial parent, or without their consent if the court finds that the parent has willfully abandoned the child.

If you have a question regarding Family Law in Los Angeles please contact us at (818) 926-4420 or visit the Family Law section on our website at Law Offices of Anat Resnik. Call today and we will connect you with Anat Resnik, an experienced, aggressive, affordable Divorce and Family Law Attorney in Encino. After you have spoken with our Los Angeles Family Law attorney, we can schedule you a free face to face appointment to discuss your circumstances. If you have questions or are considering any aspect of filing for Divorce, a Paternity issues, Child Custody and Visitation, Spousal Support & Alimony, etc. we can help! Call us now at(818) 926-4420. We look forward to hearing from you and assisting you with any and all family law needs.

Wage assignment is one of the most common mechanisms for enforcing child support in California. It is also more properly known as a earnings assignment order. This ensures that child support (or spousal support) is subtracted from an employee’s wages. It is then sent to the custodial parent, usually via the State Disbursement Unit.

California law can require child support to be paid via wage assignment. The wage assignment is binding on all employers, and is enforceable even where the employer information is outdated or incorrect. In other words, your ex’s employer must comply with the earnings assignment order . Employers who do not comply with a wage assignment are subject to being brought into court and possibly found to be in contempt.

What do you do if the non-custodial parent’s employer refuses to comply with the wage assignment? First, you must make the employer a party to the case, by filing a joinder. A joinder allows multiple plaintiffs, such as an employer, to be a party in the case. The next step is to file a motion with the Court to have the employer be ordered to comply with the wage assignment. Finally, the Court can find an employer in contempt for not honoring a valid wage assignment, meaning the employer will likely pay a fine for non-compliance.

If the non-custodial parent is self-employed or earns a cash income, other methods of insuring support payment are used. These means of collecting child support include garnishing or intercepting tax refunds, placing a lien on bank accounts. Punishment for non-payment can include suspension of a driver’s or professional license, contempt of court, and revocation of a passport.

Remember, child support is mandatory. This includes people who are getting divorced, parents involved in a paternity action, and parents who never lived together. Furthermore, payment of child support (or non-payment of it) does not impact visitation. The only relationship between visitation and support is how the timeshare impacts the guideline support amount.

If you have a question regarding Family Law in Los Angeles County please contact us at (818) 926-4420 or visit the Family Law section on our website at Law Offices of Anat Resnik. Call today and we will connect you with Anat Resnik, an experienced, aggressive, affordable Divorce and Family Law Attorney in Los Angeles County. After you have spoken with our Los Angeles County Family Law attorney, we can schedule you a free face to face appointment to discuss your circumstances. If you have questions or are considering any aspect of filing for Divorce, a Paternity issues, Child Custody and Visitation, Spousal Support & Alimony, etc. we can help! Call us now at(818) 926-4420. We look forward to hearing from you and assisting you with any and all family law needs.

Retirement plans, such as a pension, need special consideration when contemplating a divorce. These plans can reflect the joint efforts of a couple’s collective efforts over a long period of time. People who are in a divorce may be faced with issues regarding the division of such assets and settlements. Another consideration is the division of retirement account funds.

The court must adhere to federal guidelines when dividing retirement account funds in 401(k), 403(b) and other similar types of plans, but state laws dictate how IRAs are divided. It’s critical that your divorce settlement agreement clearly spells out how the assets are split and how those funds will be transferred. If some of the portion of your settlement consists of retirement assets, you should be aware of the tax ramifications and potential penalties involved.

Most of the time, distributions from a retirement plan prior to age 59 1/2 are considered “early distributions” and are subject to a 10% penalty tax as well as ordinary income tax. There is an exception to this rule. It is a transfer to an ex-spouse as part of a divorce settlement. A Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) is used to affect this transfer. Income taxes still apply, so any assets you receive from a “qualified plan”, such as a 401(k), will be subject to a mandatory 20% tax withholding. This means that, if you are awarded a $100,000 distribution from an ex-spouse’s 401(k) you will actually receive only $80,000.

To avoid this mandatory withholding, the transfer must be made directly to another retirement account, such as your own IRA. Once the assets are in your retirement account, you are now subject to the early distribution rules. If you need some of the assets to live on, or pay bills, make sure you take them out prior to transferring them to an IRA to avoid the 10% penalty.

The reality is that many retirement plans will not pay a lump sum amount and will only pay the non-employee spouse on a monthly basis for life starting at around retirement age, which could be many years in the future. Under these circumstances, the QDRO requesting the immediate lump sum payment would be rejected by the pension plan.

If you have a question regarding Family Law in Southern California please contact us at (818) 926-4420 or visit the Family Law section on our website at Law Offices of Anat Resnik. Call today and we will connect you with Anat Resnik, an experienced, aggressive, affordable Divorce and Family Law Attorney in Southern California. After you have spoken with our Southern California Family Law attorney, we can schedule you a free face to face appointment to discuss your circumstances. If you have questions or are considering any aspect of filing for Divorce, a Paternity issues, Child Custody and Visitation, Spousal Support & Alimony, etc. we can help! Call us now at(818) 926-4420. We look forward to hearing from you and assisting you with any and all family law needs.

Divorce where one or both of the parties are military personnel involves a more extensive set of requirements and rules than in a non-military divorce proceeding. Unlike standard family law cases, in military divorces there are different rules for residency requirements, and obtaining process service upon an active duty spouse. Military divorces also must comply with military rules and regulations, and the division of a military pension.

All of these issues unique to military divorce have many underlying stipulations that must be followed in order to move forward with the process. For example, in order for a court to have jurisdiction over a military divorce case, it’s necessary to personally serve the active duty member with a summons and petition for dissolution of marriage. If the service member in question is overseas or deployed, the serving process can be extremely difficult.

Divorce is never an easy process, and military divorce is especially taxing because of California’s special stipulations for service members living overseas, deployed, or outside of the California jurisdiction. Make sure you understand the path ahead well before going through this difficult process. Learn more about divorce and the military.

Of special consideration is the division of military retirement and pension assets. Military assets, including a service member’s military pension, are valuable and can be divided like a marital asset in a standard divorce case. It’s necessary for both sides in a military divorce to understand how California divorce courts deal with dividing military pensions, VA Disability, and potential problems arousing from the Survivor Benefit Plan. In order to divide a military pension, the court has to have the authority to do so from the military spouse’s consent or legal residence in a state.

If you have a question regarding Family Law in Los Angeles County please contact us at (818) 926-4420 or visit the Family Law section on our website at Law Offices of Anat Resnik. Call today and we will connect you with Anat Resnik, an experienced, aggressive, affordable Divorce and Family Law Attorney in Los Angeles County. After you have spoken with our Los Angeles County Family Law attorney, we can schedule you a free face to face appointment to discuss your circumstances. If you have questions or are considering any aspect of filing for Divorce, a Paternity issues, Child Custody and Visitation, Spousal Support & Alimony, etc. we can help! Call us now at(818) 926-4420. We look forward to hearing from you and assisting you with any and all family law needs.