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The Court of Appeals just issued what could be a very important opinion on the issue of commingling separate and community funds in certain accounts. The name of the case is Marriage of Cooper and it is a stark reminder of the perils that may result from mixing separate and community funds in the same account. This case stands for the proposition that once separate property funds are deposited into an investment account held in both parties’ names, those funds lose their separate property character and become community property. However, the spouse who contributes his or her separate property to the jointly titled account has a right of reimbursement under Family Code section 2640. So what does this mean in plain English and how will it affect future cases?  Continue reading

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He is a movie star who shot to fame on a motorcycle in “The Lost Boys.” She is a California massage therapist from a prominent East Coast family. With his sperm, her eggs and the wonder of in vitro fertilization, they produced a child, Gus.

From there, the tale gets very, very messy; a story that serves as a cautionary tale for any man considering donating sperm to a friend and any woman considering accepting it.

In February 2013, the actor lost a court battle to gain visitation rights with Gus under a California law that grants the mother full custody in the absence of a written agreement establishing parental rights before conception. But the fight for custody did not end there. Continue reading

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The latest Hollywood divorce drama comes as Amber Heard files for divorce after a 15-month union with Johnny Depp. Heard alleged an incident of domestic violence just days before she filed for divorce, and pictures later surfaced of her with a black eye. The media is abuzz with discussions of whether the abuse actually happened, or whether it was just a ploy on Heard’s part to gain sympathy and secure more money from the divorce.

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In California divorce cases, the spouse who files the request for the divorce is known as the Petitioner and the spouse responding to the request is, appropriately, the Respondent. Most divorce lawyers will tell you that there is no real benefit to being the Petitioner or the Respondent in most cases (although this divorce lawyer will tell you, all other things being equal, its nicer to be the Petitioner because the Petitioner gets to go first and last at trial).

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In the news over the past few weeks, you may have heard of Lexi, the 6-year-old Choctaw girl who was fostered by a family in Santa Clarita Valley and, against the wishes of her foster family, sent to live with her relatives in Utah:

In photos, they are a happy family – but Sunday could be the worst day for the lives of Rusty and Summer Page and their 6-year-old foster daughter, Lexi.

Lexi spent time in two other foster homes before the Pages took her to live with them and their three young children four years ago. Now, they want to adopt her.
“She’s a very happy girl and she’s a part of our family and we love her dearly,” Summer said.

Rusty added that Lexi moved in with them when she was only 2 years old and knows the couple as her mother and father.

But the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services plans to come to the Page family home Sunday to take Lexi away and send her to live with a family in Utah. The decision was made because of her heritage – she is 1.5 percent Choctaw.

Because of that, her case fell under the Indian Child Welfare Act, a federal law passed in the 1970s that aims to protect the best interests of Native American children and promote stability of tribal families.

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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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The largest single asset I deal with in any divorce is a family residence.  Home ownership in the United States has hovered between 63-69% over the last 20 years.  In California the percentage is a bit lower coming in at 53% in 2015 – no big surprise when the median home price in California is $450,000.  However, with the “purported” divorce rate of 50% of marriage, the intersection of homeowners and divorces is fairly common.

We have blogged in the past about the myriad of issues that can impact the division of a family residence.  Honestly these issues are endless.  This is probably because we deal with dividing the interest in a family home so frequently.  The focus of this blog will be to address the mortgage associated with your home when you get divorced.  For those of you with a mortgage free home – about 30% of America – well done you can stop reading now.   For the other 70 percent of us…keep reading.

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When I talk to clients about what constitutes income available to pay for child support I ask them to imagine an umbrella…a very BIG umbrella. Everything underneath that umbrella is income available to pay child support.  In California, this has been codified in Family Code Section 4058, which states;

“The annual gross income of each parent means income from whatever source derived…and includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Income such as commissions, salaries, royalties, wages, bonuses, rents, dividends, pensions, interest, trust income, annuities, workers’ compensation benefits, unemployment insurance benefits, disability insurance benefits, social security benefits, and spousal support actually received from a person not a party to the proceeding to establish a child support order under this article.”

I emphasized “social security benefits” because that is the theme of this blog.  Continue reading

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Kelly Rutherford’s heart wrenching custody battle over her two children, aged 6 and 9 years old, made headlines again last month as a Judge in Monaco ruled that the children were to stay there with their father and that Rutherford was no longer allowed to bring them to the United States. In case you are not familiar with the 6-year-long custody battle that has ensued, here is a brief overview of the key events leading up to this decision:

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Looking to get married but need extra cash to fund the wedding? Try submitting an application to Swanluv, a new startup company launching in February 2016 that is offering up to $10,000 to help couples fund their dream weddings. The catch? If you end up getting divorced, the money must be repaid…in addition to the interest accrued to-date. However, if you never divorce, you never have to pay them a dime.

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