Blog Archives
Debt and Marriage: Do I Owe My Spouse’s Debts?
Whether you and your spouse are liable for each other’s debts depends mostly on where you live. In California, one of the handful of states with “community property” rules, most debts incurred by one spouse during the marriage are owed … read more
Divorce and Student Loans: Who Pays?
Divorce and student loans and are an increasingly common set of circumstances in today’s marriages. We often see at least one member of a married couple carrying substantial student loan debt. Even with a good job, many graduates are struggling … read more
Wage Assignment: Collecting Support Directly From Wages
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. … read more
Retirement Plans and Settlement
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 … read more
Divorce and the Military
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 … read more
Custody: Legal and Physical
In California, there are two types of custody: “legal” and “physical.” Parents are encouraged to share both types of custody wherever possible. Divorcing parents need to figure out who will make decisions about their children’s care, where their children will … read more
Division and Valuation of Property
Division and valuation of property are among the primary considerations in a divorce proceeding. Regarding property, people often think that division of assets in a divorce must be equal because of California’s no-fault divorce law. However, spouses can and do … read more
Spousal Support: Alimony
In California spousal support, also called alimony, is generally a temporary means to ensure that a spouse without financial means will have enough money to pay living expenses after a divorce. It is in addition to but may be affected … read more
Irreconcilable Differences: No Fault Divorce
The concept of irreconcilable differences provides possible grounds for divorce. Prior to the enactment of California’s no-fault divorce rule, the moving party in a divorce was a plaintiff who charged the other spouse, as a defendant, with being “at fault” … read more
What is Annulment?
Divorce is not the only way that marriage can end. A marriage can be severed by annulment if the court determines that it was not legally valid. In the law’s eyes, once a marriage has been annulled, it never existed … read more
