Low Cost Family Law Cases, Is it Possible?

Just because one has a background in law does not necessarily mean one is rich or earns a lot of income.  If many of the cases done are long, difficult, and near impossible to win, and require huge
amounts of time and effort, it is possible that working on such cases will basically cause a huge
drain on income. Obviously, only a person who is willing to work for nearly free on any legal issues must realize that one is not going to make much money on such cases.

Yet attorney is one of the very, very few that has done exactly that. even working only part time.
One of the only ways to be able to do this is to perform tasks related to paralegal type work which do not require court hearings, traveling, and having to communicate with opposing attorneys. Attorney has used legal work only to help people, and often does not even charge for many of the hours.

Because of attorney's social work background (very few family law attorneys actually have a social work background apparently..)  attorney has a vested interest in seeing that a client's case has the highest chance of prevailing, since we are not going to court to lose on purpose? Even if helping self represented clients to properly understand the law so that their documents are done properly is better than never getting any help, or just guessing? Many people do lose their cases not so much because of what they did, but because of how they positioned their documents for the court. Judges do not have huge amounts of hours to spend on each case, and most pro se clients have seen this.

Perhaps if you know you have a good case, but are failing to get the judge to realize it, you really need help in the document and documentation area. Don't wait too long, try and get help ASAP. You may only be doing "documents" but why lose when perhaps you could have won, had you known what you really should be doing or should have done?

FAMILY CODE 4320 ..IT MAY BREAK YOU OR IT MIGHT SUPPORT YOU

Family Code 4320-4326,  basically outlines what factors are used to determine spousal support.

https://law.justia.com/codes/california/2007/fam/4320-4326.html

2019 Amendments and Revisions to California Family Code ...

www.thurmanarnold.com › Family-Law-Blog › 2019 › January › 2019-A...

Jan 20, 2019 - 4320(i) now reads: "All documented evidence of any history of domestic violence, as defined in Section 6211, between the parties or perpetrated by either party against either party's child, including, but not limited to, consideration of: (1) A plea of nolo contendere...  

Child Support Factors

Family Code section 4058 - This is core statute with big implications specifically for child support, but also in terms of defining gross income for purposes of spousal support. Subsection (b) has been rewritten.

It used to say:

"The court may, in its discretion, consider the earning capacity of a parent in lieu of the parent's income, consistent with the best interests of the children." 

It now reads:

"(b) The court may, in its discretion, consider the earning capacity of a parent in lieu of the parent's income, consistent with the best interests of the children, taking into consideration the overall welfare and developmental needs of the children, and the time that parent spends with the children."

This appears to be a clarification of what factors the legislature considers to directly impact the best interests of a child for purposes of child support awards, and so wants family courts to consider....

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Code Section Group - California Legislative Information

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov › faces › codes_displayText › lawCode=F...

Family Code - FAM ... 4320. In ordering spousal support under this part, the court shall consider all of the following circumstances: .... as punishable pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 664 of the Penal Code, or of soliciting the murder ... this subdivision shall only apply to convictions that occur on or after January 1, 2019.

Spousal Support and the New Federal Tax Laws

https://www.pasadenafamilylawfirm.com › 2019 › january › spousal-supp...

Jan 12, 2019 - The new codes went into effect on January 1, 2019. ... Under California's Family Code Section 4320 (j), when determining spousal support, the ...

http://www.hansonflg.com/wp-content/uploads/ACFLS-Specialist-2018.1-Winter-Retroactivity-article-only.pdf

California Alimony Laws | What You Do Not Know May Hurt You

https://farzadlaw.com › Home › Alimony Guides

Family Code 4320 governs the amount and duration of alimony in California .... However, commencing in 2019, the new federal tax laws make modifications to .

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=4320.&lawCode=FAM

Since the rules on spousal support have drastically changed, make sure to find out how the laws will affect you. Especially if you are the one paying, or  believe that you should not be paying the amount you were told to pay...

Winning in Unusual Way! from 2015

In another instance of trial, after cross examining the other party, the opposing counsel suddenly called a recess.

After 7 years of never being able to get a dime out of the ex, who had already filed bankruptcy, my client, having previously used 3 different lawyers, [w/o a good result],  ended up contacting attorney herein --- for trial.
The opposing attorney stopped the trial and offered a combo of about $23,000 combined cash/property $100,000, and attorney fees of $6,000. This likely meant that if they had NOT stopped the trial, my client would had gotten spousal, but we would have had to chase him forever across the USA to get it. Client elected to take the offer. Because attorney herein cornered the ex spouse on the stand for what appeared to be potential bankruptcy fraud, the rest is history......

In another instance, a civil case by a former wife against former husband and girlfriend, the husband  had already been convicted of homicide (and was on appeal, he lost); the case then went to jury on issue on civil liability as to both husband and girlfriend. Keeping in mind husband was already convicted of first degree murder, the jury decided that husband was only 60% at fault in civil case. 

Normally the civil case has much less burden of proof, so finding the husband only 60% and not 100% evidently meant, jury wanted to punish the girlfriend because they took 40% and assigned it-- NOT-- to the husband. This verdict was reported in Verdict Search, a national reporting source for large verdicts nationwide. Counsel representing the girlfriend was from insurance defense firm.

Currently, the former wife has not been able to collect much on the verdict [of millions] after paying fees/costs and it is anticipated she will not be able to collect in the future. Very interesting case, which also involved animals (pet dogs) owned by the husband/son. Son was stabbed when father went to check on condition of dogs; father claims son ran into the knife by lunging forward.

In a very unusual scenario, attorney was substituted into a case with a client who did not reside locally;  a hearing on an issue was set for a date only several days away, at which time attorney believed the hearing could be continued. It seems the hearing was in fact a trial (according to Judge) -- and the client was not present and Judge did not want to continue the issue. Attorney went forward on the issue, with no witness or client. Using only cross examination, Attorney actually won the trial--much to surprise of  witnesses present and including opposing counsel.

This is very uncommon, but imagine how your case might work out if attorney can do this, without even having a client or a witness?

Attorney thinks it's fair to say, you would be in good hands. Especially if other attorneys have failed in the past on your case.

Note: All of these scenarios are actual cases but by no means are such outcomes considered standard. Each case has different facts and various laws which will apply; each case can vary tremendously, and attorney is not representing that such outcomes are common. However, attorney does have a very high percent of cases that settle or result in what the client wanted.

Can You Lose Custody Due to Bipolar,Drugs, Arrests, Domestic Violence, or Even Lies??

First... we should remember that there is both legal custody and physical custody. Many parents are concerned over physical custody as it is tied into child support; and many parents are concerned about legal custody, because shared legal custody is often given, unless one parent has shown he or she has issues in that area; CA law favors joint legal/physical if agreed upon, but the court has wide discretion for parenting and will consider the child or children's best interest.

Legal custody basically involves the health, welfare, education and safety issues involving raising of children. Attorney has seen many parents lose legal custody [prior to consulting attorney herein] due to very poor decisions made with kids (i.e. drunk driving, drug history, domestic violence, criminal actions, harming of kids, abandoning kids, etc.) As an example of "joint legal custody" in a form (by the CA Judicial Council, and used by all CA courts, see form FL341(E) online..)

 It is potentially possible that one parent can poison the relationship between a parent and child to extent that the Court might have to award the other child to the other parent to prevent the same parental alienation from happening?

Family Code 3042 goes over a child's preference of where to live (one parent or another) and generally,  gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or handicap supposedly are irrelevant to custody of children. If this was your partner being arrested, consider the difficulty at trial as to whether or not it would make a difference to your case?

So when your mediation results in a recommendation you do not like or want, did the mediator make informed decisions or did he or she ignore you and just listen to the other parent? It is very common to find out after the mediation that neither parent really understood what happened in the mediation itself. Not all mediators do the actual mediations exactly alike.

Attorney has found that many clients do not do well in mediation because they do not understand why they need to even go to mediation. Then they just blurt out anything they want to, may express high anger or no patience, and basically do not present well to the person that will decide their fate with the kids?

When considering whether one can lose custody to any of the named things listed in the title for this post, attorney has indeed seen parents lose custody for those things, in combination with many other things, most of which were negative. Negative things (smoking inside, falling asleep drunk, letting kids wander alone outside in front yard, giving kids alcohol or drugs, leaving kids alone home, allowing large animals with kids unsupervised, putting older kids in charge of younger kids while older kid is playing video games entire time, letting kids be truant, failing to take kids to doctor, ignoring kids' homework, etc.)

The reason that gender, race, religion and sexual orientation or handicap are not relevant to custody is because those items are already under Federal law protections, so it would be discriminatory. Note however, that if a parent was trying to get away with something by claiming it fell under one of those categories but in reality, it did NOT, that would be a different story.)

If you are facing mediation and need help, contact attorney.

SPOUSAL SUPPORT AND WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS

CALIFORNIA SPOUSAL SUPPORT FACTORS

https://attorneyrosevillefamilylawcjchan.blogspot.com/2019/10/ca-spousal-support-factors.html

(This is from one of my other blogs, law is all online)

Many clients do not understand the rules re spousal support. Some believe they will never get anything, and some believe they are entitled to everything?!

When it comes to spousal support, ---it's usually the husband having to support the wife in most cases, but not all.  The Court (and you) should consider all of the following circumstances according to FC4320:

The extent to which each party's earning capacity is sufficient to maintain the standard of living established during the marriage, taking into account FC4320(a)(1),(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 the family

The extent to which the supported spouse contributed to the attainment of an education, training, a career position or a license by the supporting spouse FC4320(b)

The supporting spouse's ability to pay, taking into account his or her earning capacity, earned and unearned income, assets, and standard of living FC4320(c)

The needs of each party based on the standard of living established during the marriage FC4320(d)

The obligations and assets of each party, including separate property FC4320(e)

The duration of the marriage FC4320(f)

The supported spouse's ability to be employed without interfering with the interests of any dependent children who are in his or her custody FC4320(g)

The parties' age and health FC4320(h)

Documented evidence of any domestic violence, including consideration of emotional disteess from domestic violence perpetrated against the supported party by the supporting party, and consideration of any history of violence by the supported party against the supporting party FC4320(i)

The immediate and specific tax consequences to each party FC4320(j)

The balance of the hardships to each party FC4320(k)

The goal that the supported spouse shall be self supporting within a reasonable period of time FC4320l

The criminal conviction of an abusive spouse and the reduction or elimination of any award to an abusive spouse under FC4325 [FC4320(m)]

Any other factors that you determine are just and equitable FC4320(n)

Note: "any other factors" kind of leaves the door wide open if you ask me?!
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The Dad's Car !

The Mom's Car?

*Let's say this:  If  YOU   get a particular reaction just out of  looking at pictures 

of  two different  cars, 

imagine what could be done with court exhibits at trial??

Litigation involving spousal support can be affected by how your attorney sets up the case. Some attorneys simply do not exert a lot of effort and will just want to settle the case, the better attorney will realize all of the data in the case can make a HUGE difference, and that settling the case may not actually be helpful strategy wise?  (If you do not understand this, don't worry.)

Using all of the above factors, attorney can assess the potential liability, the possible outcomes, and the known propensity of various judges to determine the strategy needed for best outcome.

Attorney herein has strategy tactics, and uses them,  in order to obtain superior results. Provable at that!  Difficult fact patterns call for those who can think outside the box!

If you need an affordable attorney, please consider that it's better to get more than you paid for, than to pay too much-- and still lose your case!