A Family Law Firm has been a provider of expert family law services in Sonoma County for over fifteen years. They offer expert legal advice and assistance in all areas of family law including divorce, legal separation, child support, child custody, child visitation, spousal support, division of property, grandparent's rights and restraining orders.
Child Support
Child support is determined by imputing a number of variables into a formula which calculates the level of support one spouse will provide to another. The formula is complicated; for this reason, attorneys and judges use software programs to apply the formula.
Spousal Support
Pending a judgment of dissolution, many courts apply a formula to determine the amount of spousal support. However, when a final determination of spousal support is made by a judge, certain factors must be considered. These factors are set forth in California Family Code Section 4320. In ordering spousal support under this part, the court shall consider all of the following circumstances:
(a) The extent to which the earning capacity of each party is sufficient to maintain the standard of living established during the marriage, taking into account all of the following:
(1) The marketable skills of the supported party; the job market for those skills; the time and expenses required for the supported party to acquire the appropriate education or training to develop those skills; and the possible need for retraining or education to acquire other, more marketable skills or employment.
(2) The extent to which the supported party's present or future earning capacity is impaired by periods of unemployment that were incurred during the marriage to permit the supported party to devote time to domestic duties.
(b) The extent to which the supported party contributed to the attainment of an education, training, a career position, or a license by the supporting party.
(c) The ability to pay of the supporting party, taking into account the supporting party's earning capacity, earned and unearned income, assets, and standard of living.
(d) The needs of each party based on the standard of living established during the marriage.
(e) The obligations and assets, including the separate property, of each party.
(f) The duration of the marriage.
(g) The ability of the supported party to engage in gainful employment without unduly interfering with the interests of dependent children in the custody of the party.
(h) The age and health of the parties, including, but not limited to, consideration of emotional distress resulting from domestic violence perpetrated against the supported party by the supporting party where the court finds documented evidence of a history of domestic violence, as defined in Section 6211, against the supported party by the supporting party.
(i) The immediate and specific tax consequences to each party.
(j) The balance of the hardships to each party.
(k) The goal that the supported party shall be self-supporting within a reasonable period of time. Except in the case of a marriage of long duration as described in Section 4336, a "reasonable period of time" for purposes of this section generally shall be one-half the length of the marriage. However, nothing in this section is intended to limit the court's discretion to order support for a greater or lesser length of time, based on any of the other factors listed in this section, Section 4336, and the circumstances of the parties.
(l) Any other factors the court determines are just and equitable.
Dividing your property
During your marriage, you have likely amassed assets as well as debts. Together, these can be thought of as "property interests". For most California residents, if such property interests are in dispute, then they must be characterized by applying California community property law. When you hear the term "community" imagine when yourself, as an individual, married your spouse, another individual. The union of these two individuals formed the community.
From that moment forward, all efforts by either spouse can be thought of as community efforts. Consequently, however, wages earned by a spouse during marriage are usually community property. Not all assets and debts acquired during marriage are necessarily community property. A spouse may own property before marriage or a spouse may receive an inheritance during marriage. Under these circumstances, and a myriad of others, a property interest may be characterized as one spouse's separate property, community property, or a mixture of both. If property disputes are brought in front of a California court, the judge will divide the community property equally (unless otherwise expressly governed by a statute)
opinion that any sensible agreements that can be reached between the spouses regarding these issues will decrease the emotional and economic pain that is so often a part of dissolutions. To the extent that we can provide our clients with information and advice to help them settle their matter, we do so. However, sometimes spouses cannot reach an agreement and it becomes necessary to litigate. In these instances, we represent our clients throughout the litigation process until the case settles or is decided by a judge.
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