San Diego Divorce Attorneys Blog

December 17, 2012

Technology Fosters Cooperation in Modern Divorces

We have previously blogged about different ways technology can be used to gain an advantage or gather evidence in a dissolution proceeding. However, ex-spouses are now learning how to use the advances in technology to foster cooperation and harmony post-separation. Many divorcing couples would prefer to sever the ties between them completely after their divorce is final. This goal is unattainable for ex-spouses who will continue to share custody of minor children for years after separation. The new trend called “joint custody – at a distance” encourages splitting couples to communicate electronically rather than during “in person” exchanges in order to reduce the emotional tension during a “drop off” or “pick up”.Many parents have found that they fight and argue less in front of their children if they are able to express their emotions through other outlets. E-mail communication, online calendars and a number of other online resources are all available to conflicting parties who share children. By sharing an online calendar parents can easily coordinate a child-sharing schedule. All of the child’s activities and plans are readily available to view and change without any need for in-person or telephonic communication between the parents.

Our Family Wizard is a common solution for parents in conflict. A judge may order parties to use Our Family Wizard, a program which tracks all communication, expenses, and even sends notices to the parties regarding their obligations. Because the communication between parents can be supervised by the judge and attorneys involved in the case, the parties are incentivized to speak civilly to each other. This form of communication can take away the aggravation and emotional side of child-sharing and ease the tension and stress for the children involved. The program can be purchased for approximately $100 per year.

Another form of technology frequently appearing in custody orders is Skype. Skype is a free program that allows two or more people to have an online video conversation. In cases where both parties cannot easily see a child frequently, the court may order “Skype visitation”. During a Skype visit, a parent can have a video conversation with the child. Skype also permits conversations to be recorded and can ensure that the visiting parent is getting enough video time with the child. Additionally, a parent may be ordered to purchase a cell phone for the child in order to avoid any telephonic communication between the parties. This way, if a parent wishes to speak to his or her child during the child’s scheduled time with the other parent, he or she can reach the child directly.

November 27, 2012

Ariel Winter’s Emotional Abuse

By Bickford Blado & Botros

November 22, 2012

Legalizing Polygamy?

By Bickford Blado & Botros

As we have previously blogged, it is illegal in San Diego for any married person to marry anyone other than his or her current spouse. Polygamy describes a marriage between more than two people. TLC brought the spotlight to this mysterious form of marriage with its reality show Sister Wives. Sister Wives is a show about the Brown family in which one man is married to four different women. After the show aired, rumors spread that the authorities were investigating the Browns for polygamy. The thought of criminal prosecution for their lifestyle forced the Browns out of the State of Utah, where they were living, to Nevada where they believed they would be more easily accepted.

Although Utah authorities investigated the Browns, many people are speaking out against laws prohibiting polygamy. Polygamy is often linked to the Mormon faith, thus those who are speaking out against its prohibition cite laws protecting religious freedom. Those condemning anti-polygamy laws argue that the laws inhibit religious freedom in the same way that laws prohibiting contraception did.

Legally, polygamists argue that anti-polygamy laws violate the U.S. Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause. The Free Exercise Clause prohibits the states from imposing restrictions on someone on the basis of the person’s religious beliefs. The state may only impose a restriction if that restriction is necessary to achieve a compelling state interest. However, a law of general applicability, which only incidentally burdens religious practices, will not be subject to invalidation. Any state which prohibits polygamy defends this law by arguing that a compelling interest (protection of women and children) exists and that anti-polygamy laws are necessary to achieve that compelling interest.

November 20, 2012

Dennis Quaid’s Wife Files for Legal Separation

By Bickford Blado & Botros

After eight years of marriage to the famous actor, Dennis Quaid’s wife, Kimberly Buffington, recently filed for legal separation. In March of 2012 Buffington filed a petition for dissolution of marriage citing “discord or conflict of personalities” as the reason for the split. However, just three months after she filed, Buffington withdrew her divorce petition. The couple seemed to be working on their relationship when they celebrated their eight-year anniversary in Bora Bora. In her petition for legal separation Buffington requested joint legal and physical custody of the couple’s twins. Additionally, Buffington asked the court to award her spousal support and order Quaid to contribute toward her attorney fees and court costs.

Quaid and Buffington recently moved to California from Texas. Although Buffington filed for legal separation, she reportedly intends to file for a full divorce once the six-month waiting period has expired. In California, only parties who have resided in the state for a minimum of six months may file for divorce in California family courts. Deciding to file for legal separation or divorce is an important decision. If a party files for legal separation, the court has the ability to make custody and visitation, support, and property division orders. Unlike in divorce proceedings, there is no requisite waiting period to obtain a legal separation.

November 15, 2012

What Could You Lose in a San Diego Divorce?

By Bickford Blado & Botros

In the 1950’s it was common for a husband to be the breadwinner for his family and for a wife to stay at home to care for the children, but how much of that traditional stereotype persists today? In divorces, the traditional view of marriage creates assumptions such as “husbands are ordered to pay spousal support more often than wives” and “women are more often awarded custody of the children”. A study conducted by the University of Michigan tends to show that these old traditions and stereotypical roles may still endure today.

According to the study conducted by the University of Michigan, each year approximately 115,000 women are left without health insurance following a divorce. Additionally, two years after their initial divorce, the health insurance rate for divorced women remains low. Many health insurance companies allow employees who receive health insurance benefits to claim their spouses as dependents for insurance purposes. This allows the employee to obtain health insurance on behalf of his or her spouse through his or her employer. However, upon divorce, employees are generally not permitted to claim former spouses as dependents. Therefore, any divorcé formerly covered by his or her spouse’s health insurance must find new coverage.

The intriguing part of the University of Michigan study is that so many women, not men, are left without health insurance following divorce. Does this mean that men are typically still the breadwinners in modern marriages? The study also noted that even employed women had a difficult time maintaining health insurance through their employers. Because of the financial difficulties that can come with divorce, many women had to sacrifice paying health insurance premiums in order to pay for basic necessities.

November 13, 2012

Halle Berry International Move-Away Update

By Bickford Blado & Botros

As we have previously blogged, Halle Berry is entrenched in a bitter custody battle with Gabriel Aubry. Berry and Aubry separated in 2010 and reached a custody agreement in 2011; however, the former couple’s agreement did not suit Berry after she got engaged to Oliver Martinez. Berry intends to relocate to France with her new fiancé, Oliver Martinez, but requested the court’s permission to bring her daughter along first. On Friday November 10th, the judge denied Berry’s request to allow her daughter, Nahla, to move to France.

In determining whether to grant or deny a parent’s request to move away with a child, the court must assume that the requesting parent will move regardless of the court’s ruling. Although it is not generally reality, this presumption requires the court to consider if it would be in the child’s best interest to maintain the same lifestyle or live further away from the moving parent. It is generally in a child’s best interest to remain in the same neighborhood, attend the same school, interact with the same friends, and maintain as much stability as possible. This is because schedules and routines can help a child adjust to the separation of his or her parents. However, move-away cases present a more complicated scenario. The court must consider two alternatives: either the child will be uprooted from his or her current life or the child will remain in the same location without one of his or her parents.

November 8, 2012

Rental Income is Income Available for Support

By Bickford Blado & Botros

Often in San Diego divorces, both spouses are unable to maintain the same lifestyle they enjoyed while living together. The lifestyle of the parties during marriage is called the marital standard of living. The financial reality of divorce is that it is more expensive to sustain two separate households than it is to sustain one. Thus, divorce can lead to an adjustment in spending, entertainment and square footage.

Spousal support is a tool used by Family Courts to attempt to equalize the living situation of both spouses. This is especially true if one spouse forgoes the opportunity to work for many years in order to take care of his or her children. If one spouse is the breadwinner and the other maintains the home and the children, upon divorce, the breadwinner will be able to support the same lifestyle but this would leave the non-working spouse with no ability to support him or herself and the children. Thus, the court will order the breadwinner to pay support to the non-working spouse in order for both to maintain similar standards of living post-separation.

Spousal support is calculated, on a temporary basis, using a guideline formula. The formula requires lawyers and judges to input both spouses “income” that is available for support. For a W-2 employee, this calculation is basic. The only factor to consider when determining income available for support is the gross wages from the spouse’s tax return or year-end form W-2. Some spouses however, have attempted to artificially deflate this income available for support by taking a reduction in salary and instead receiving housing or car allowance perks from their employer. If the court recognizes an attempt to artificially deflate income, it may impute the value of perks received by the spouse as additional income available for support.

November 6, 2012

Oprah Winfrey, her Father’s Divorce, and Evictions

By Bickford Blado & Botros

Oprah Winfrey has become entangled in her father Vernon Winfrey’s divorce. Vernon married his current wife, Barbara Winfrey, in 2000. Vernon’s divorce papers contain allegations that Barbara engaged in “inappropriate marital conduct,” which refers to an extramarital affair. In her response, Barbara accuses Vernon of violent outbursts including an incident where he chased her with a gun and threatened to pull the trigger.

During their marriage, the couple has enjoyed living in a $1.4 million dollar home in Nashville. The home is owned by a trust, which was created and funded by Oprah. Vernon filed for divorce in Franklin, Tennessee in June of 2012. As a result of the divorce process, the Davidson County Sheriff’s deputies had an order to evict Ashley Williams, Oprah’s stepsister, from the Winfrey marital residence. However, the attorney for the trust had the order rescinded. The relationship between Oprah and Barbara seems beyond repair; however, that tension does not seem to extend to Oprah’s relationship with her stepsister.

November 1, 2012

My Spouse the Spy?

By Bickford Blado & Botros

As we have previously blogged, technology is playing an important role in San Diego divorces. Often, spouses use social media sites such as Facebook to gather information about their spouse to be used in the dissolution process. However, some spouses are taking the use of technology to a whole new level. Danny Lee Hormann did not simply peruse his wife’s Facebook when he suspected her of cheating. Instead he installed a gamut of spy equipment in the family home, on the family computer, on his wife’s cell phone, and in his wife’s car.

Michele Mathias, Hormann’s wife, became so worried that her husband was spying on her that she and their children searched the family home for recording devices and held whispered conversations on the lawn. Mathis argued that it was not only her family’s privacy that was invaded, but the privacy of every person who sent her a text message or used her computer was compromised as well. The police pursued criminal charges against Hormann for stalking and he was sentenced to thirty days in jail. According to Hormann, when others hear his story they reply that they would have done the same thing.

This type of spying and information gathering results in the collection of more private information in a short period of time than the discovery process may ever be able to gather. However, many lawyers are questioning the legality of this behavior and what information, if any, can actually be used as evidence in a dissolution case. Under the U.S. Constitution, we all have a “reasonable expectation of privacy.” This expectation of privacy is reduced in certain instances such as when a person is in public. Spying spouses have begun to argue that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a marriage.

October 30, 2012

Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher’s Divorce Battle

By Bickford Blado & Botros

Demi Moore, 49, and Ashton Kutcher, 34, garnered an enormous amount of media attention when they married in September of 2005. The spotlight continued to follow the couple when rumors of Kutcher’s infidelity began to spread. Allegedly, Kutcher cheated on his wife with two party girls Brittney Jones and Sarah Leal. Regarding her husband’s infidelity, Moore released the following statement “as a woman, and a mother and a wife, there are certain values and vows that I hold sacred, and it is in this spirit that I have chosen to move forward with my life.”

Moore and Kutcher are taking an interesting approach to the divorce process. Although the couple split in 2011, neither party has filed a divorce petition. Rumors have now spread that Moore and Kutcher were never legally married. However, the more likely explanation is that the couple is attempting to reach a settlement before a petition for dissolution of marriage is filed. It seems the former couple cannot agree on how to split up the enormous $290 million fortune they amassed. Unlike in the Brand-Perry divorce, Kutcher and Moore have earned a relatively similar amount. According to reports, Moore is worth $150 million while Kutcher is worth $140 million.