Articles Posted in Custody and Visitation

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What happens if you are a grandparent and you would like court ordered visitation rights with your grandchildren in California? In California, under Family Code section 3100, the family court may grant reasonable visitation rights to the grandparent of a minor child.

California can be fairly permissive when it comes to granting orders of visitation between  grandchildren and grandparents. In deciding whether to grant visitation rights to anyone, a court will always place the interests of the child first. For a court to order visitation, a California court will balance the interests of the child against the traditional right of the parents to decide who their children associate with. Continue reading

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In many high conflict cases, the Court cannot rely solely on the parties and the witnesses selected by the parties to come to an informed conclusion on child custody and visitation. The Court must rely on other professionals to investigate and evaluate the family’s circumstances. A custody evaluation is generally considered to be a matter of right to a noncustodial parent facing a request to move the children out of California. In California, there are generally three ways the Court can appoint evaluators.

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Summer is right around the corner, which means one thing…School is almost out! Thinking of where you and your child want to spend some time soaking up the sun? Before you plan that out of the county or even out of the country vacation, let’s make sure your trip will be smooth sailing by making sure you are complying with all court orders.

First, determine where you are in your case (pre- or post-judgment). Take a look at your most recent order:

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Texting is the most widely-used and frequently used app on a smartphone, with 97% of Americans using it at least once a day.  Not impressed…Over 6 billion text messages are sent in the U.S. each day, making it the most common cell phone activity for more than 80% of adults.

Everyone sends text messages.  They are quick, fast, and effective, especially when a full phone call is not necessary. For all of the benefits of texting, there are serious downsides.  Texting is more impersonal than a real phone call.  It is much easier to deliver bad news or to say something in anger via a text than it is in person or on the phone.  Also, you tend to respond quickly and without thinking.  This can have serious consequences.  Continue reading

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With summer right around the corner questions about summer vacations should begin coming soon.  Inevitably one of the questions will be about the children traveling abroad.  Whether you are the parent who wants to take the children abroad or you are a parent concerned about the children traveling abroad, this blog should help to explain what issues you will face, what concerns are valid and how to go about getting an order allowing or preventing travel abroad with the children.

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In a previous post, we gave an overview of what parents can expect from the contested child custody process in California, from the filing of the Petition until the time the Court makes its first orders. In this post, we will go beyond the Court’s first orders and discuss the process from that point until a child custody trial that results in a judgment.

Again, remember that parents can agree to custody and visitation arrangements without getting the Court involved, except to approve the agreement.  This post is mostly about cases where the parents can’t agree.

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If you are a parent who is anxious about the child custody process in California, you are in good company. These feelings are perfectly normal. After all, the decisions on custody and visitation are so crucial and most parents know so little about the process. I thought I would explain the process in a general sense so parents have a better idea of what to expect. This post will explain the process from the filing of the Petition until the time the Court makes its first orders. The process from that point forward until trial will be explained in a subsequent post.

Keep in mind that parents can agree to a custody and visitation arrangement and the Court will almost always rubberstamp it.  This post is mostly about cases where the parents can’t agree.

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There are some orders that we feel are underutilized by Judges in Custody cases. One of the reasons we list them here is because the judges in this county tend to not have egos: if you ask them to adjust an order they just made and they like the suggestion, they won’t have any qualms about doing so. So if a judge in your case doesn’t make an order listed here, feel free to tell them why they should!

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California has one of the most complicated child support laws of any state. Sometimes, the complications don’t end once you have an order: a parent sometimes has to deal with the other parent not paying the Court ordered child support. Here are 5 helpful tips Continue reading

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Coldplay singer Chris Martin opened up in an interview published in The Sunday Times on March 20th about his 2014 spilt with Gwyneth Paltrow. He described his divorce from Paltrow as a “weird one,” their split having been referred to as a “conscious uncoupling” rather than a “divorce,” where they remain close and continue to take vacations together with their two children. But even as smooth as their split has seemed, Martin admits that it led to a year-long depression, and he continues to struggle daily.

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