San Diego Divorce Attorneys Blog

October 27, 2015

My Spouse is Hiding Assets

Full, honest, and complete disclosure is a critical part of divorce in California. Family Code section 2100 explicitly calls for “full and accurate disclosure of all assets and liabilities” because doing so furthers the sound public policy of “the reduction of the adversarial nature of marital dissolution and the attendant costs…”

Divorcees often ask about the legal consequences of concealing assets in a divorce case. Under California law, doing so is an express breach of fiduciary duty and the penalties can be severe. There is no better example of this than the result in the Marriage of Rossi case, where Wife tried to hide over a million dollars in lottery winnings she received before separation.

October 26, 2015

What is a Custody Evaluation? [Part One]

By Bickford Blado & Botros

In earlier blogs I discussed what a parent can expect during child custody mediation, both private mediation and court connected mediation. Both scenarios, while nuanced, are quite straight forward. What happens if you are involved in a high-conflict child custody case and the court orders a custody evaluation? What does the evaluation cost? And how long do they take? I hope to answer these questions in this blog. In my next blog, I will discuss what to expect from a custody evaluation, how you can prepare and some of the reason a court will order a custody evaluation.

October 22, 2015

What is a nullity/annulment and how is it different than a divorce?

By Bickford Blado & Botros

When the marriages of most couples become irretrievably broken, the most common way to end these marriages is to file for divorce. However, certain extenuating circumstances call for annulling the marriage rather than dissolving it.

There are two distinct categories of marriages in the context of nullities. There are marriages that are void and there are marriages that are voidable.

October 21, 2015

Settlement in Divorce

By Bickford Blado & Botros

On October 7, 2015 news broke that the richest man in Illinois, hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, came to a settlement in his divorce from Anne Dias Griffin. The two had entered into a prenuptial agreement (also referred to as a “prenup” or “premarital agreement”) prior to their marriage in 2003. They have three young children together.

October 20, 2015

Attorney’s Fees Awards

By Bickford Blado & Botros

It is no secret that hiring an attorney can be costly. A spouse may be hesitant to seek legal counsel in their divorce or related family law matter, thinking that they would be unable to afford it. However, it is extremely important to have legal representation in certain matters, and this is especially critical where the other party is represented by an attorney. In such a case, in order to ensure adequate representation, a spouse may be entitled to an attorney’s fees and costs award (hereinafter referred to as simply an “award”); or a court order that the other party is to pay attorney’s fees and costs for BOTH parties.

October 19, 2015

Private Custody Mediation

By Bickford Blado & Botros

In an earlier blog I discussed what to expect from court connected child custody mediation (Family Court Services – “FCS”). If you have not read that blog yet, go back and take a look since I give a background on child custody mediation generally. In today’s blog, I am going to focus on private child custody mediation.

October 14, 2015

What is a “Moore/Marsden” calculation and how does that effect the division of community property?

By Bickford Blado & Botros

It happens all the time. One spouse buys a home before the date of marriage, but during the marriage, community money is used to pay down the mortgage. How does the Court typically deal with these situations?

This question was largely resolved in the Supreme Court of California case, In re Marriage of Moore, and the appellate case In re Marriage of Marsden, which to an extent clarified Moore.

These cases held that when the community pays down principal, the community is not only entitled to a dollar for dollar reimbursement, but is entitled to a pro tanto share of the appreciation in the property from the date of marriage to the time of trial. This leads us to the infamous Moore/Marsden formula.

October 13, 2015

“Manimony”

By Bickford Blado & Botros

Megan Fox may pay “manimony”…shows us alimony isn’t just for the ladies anymore!

After a 5 year marriage, Megan Fox filed for divorce from Brian Austin Green in August. While there has been much speculation since then as to whether Fox would be on the hook for spousal support, it seems that Green has just confirmed the possibility by his response filed September 29, 2015, on which he reportedly checked that magic little box requesting spousal support be paid to him by Fox.

October 12, 2015

Non-Confidential Custody Mediation

By Bickford Blado & Botros

The focus of this blog is parents involved in contested custody cases and required custody mediation. Contested custody cases come in all shapes and sizes. On one end of the spectrum you have the high-conflict custody cases (the knockdown, drag out fights) and on the other end you have the “we agree on most things, but there are some details that we still need to iron out.”

No matter where on the spectrum your case falls, if you and the other parent cannot reach a full agreement on custody issues, you will be required to attend child custody mediation. Under California law [Family Code §3170], any contested issue related to custody and visitation must be set for mediation.

October 8, 2015

How does the UCCJEA “more appropriate forum” exceptions affect which State will make custody and visitation orders over children?

By Bickford Blado & Botros

Earlier this week, we discussed the basics of how the UCCJEA determines which states get to make custody and visitation orders over children. We did not discuss the more appropriate forum exceptions of Family Code sections 3427 and 3428. These are discussed below.

As noted before, there are 4 types of jurisdiction under the UCCJEA: (1) Initial jurisdiction (2) Continuing, Exclusive Jurisdiction (3) Modification Jurisdiction and (4) Emergency Jurisdiction.