One of the most often seen issues in Family Law, are the law and motion hearings on reducing support, increasing support or elimination of support. Unfortunately in California, most parents are aware that the support formula for calculating support is tied to the visitation.
Increasingly, more fathers are attempting to maintain their rights to their children, which is good for the children in general. However, a pro se client attempting to reduce support usually will have a difficult time unless there are obvious factors for the Court to plainly reduce or eliminate.
In general, your evidence is controlling if you already know the rules or law. If you don't know the rules or law, it's best to go research it before trying to turn in your documents. It is pretty useless to make an argument using the wrong law, but with online articles and Findlaw, you can usually find almost any case or law unless it just came out yesterday. Also generic Google searches will often turn up scholar articles from law reviews and prestige colleges that not everyone has read.
Because law and motion is a limited time frame, any issues which exceed 15 minutes (in Sacramento, for example) --- are to be heard on a different hearing basis, a long cause hearing, which will take more time for the Court. In Butte County, in excess of 20 minutes. Butte County has quite a few local rules involving Family Law which can be seen by looking at the Butte County Superior Court website and then finding the box for Local Rules.
For example, if a case had been continued or not, but they failed to record that, so you show up and your case isn't on the calendar. Or, you had related cases and one case is not linked to the other cases and you didn't even know it was missing. Or, a case has a hearing but it is not even listed. But you show up and no one else is there. It is a good idea to call the court several days ahead to ensure your motion is actually on the calendar.
Some calendars are horribly long, and some are quite short. TRAC calendars can be awfully long, awfully crowded, and a big waste of time. We think Butte County might be one of the few, or the only county, that does not set for trial by using a computer driven date system.
In Sacramento, you can't select a trial date, you can only select a specific date as being unavailable. The computer sets up all dates after parties have eliminated their UNavailable dates, which makes sense.
And you cannot keep doing it over again (in Butte you can to some extent if the other party after 4 months never has an available date, that is pretty bad.)
Also in Sacramento, most cases are settled at the Mandatory Settlement Conferences, thus creating less work for the courtrooms. Pro tems are used at mandatory settlement which forces the parties to some extent, to cut their losses by agreeing on some things for a change.
Monday, January 9, 2017
Monday, November 21, 2016
ACCUSED OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND TRO FILED ON YOU??
Attorney herein practices both family law and criminal law...this can be a big help in defending domestic violence cases...............
The last thing most people need is a "DV" TRO on their record, even if they are not guilty of it--- it carries both a stigma (you beat up people or try to hurt them, etc), that you are not fit to watch or babysit children (age of kids will matter but especially babies) and you will be stuck with what is known as supervised visitation which you will likely not be able to afford, or will not want to afford. Further, the wait list is very long unless you plan to use a private agency which is quite expensive.
In nearly all cases, you should either set for trial or if the other side
is willing to drop it-- that's fine--but most of those that drop
such charges tend to refile them...
....The best thing to do if accused of any "DV" TRO
is to immediately get legal help so that you
don't go down like a sinking ship
before you even get started.
The last thing most people need is a "DV" TRO on their record, even if they are not guilty of it--- it carries both a stigma (you beat up people or try to hurt them, etc), that you are not fit to watch or babysit children (age of kids will matter but especially babies) and you will be stuck with what is known as supervised visitation which you will likely not be able to afford, or will not want to afford. Further, the wait list is very long unless you plan to use a private agency which is quite expensive.
IF YOU HAVE HAD A "DV" TRO
SLAPPED ON YOU,
CALL ATTORNEY ASAP.
Waiting--- Will Harm You!!!
is willing to drop it-- that's fine--but most of those that drop
such charges tend to refile them...
IF YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN CHARGED UNDER THE CALIFORNIA PENAL CODE, PC273.6WITH VIOLATING A "DV" TRO..........CALL ATTORNEY ASAP
As can be seen by the Penal Code,
this means you will
be in Criminal Court,
not Family Law Court!!!!
Chico Family Law Lawyers - Justia
https://www.justia.com/lawyers/family-law/california/chico
Claimed Lawyer ProfileSocial Media. Mr. Maria Amaya. Chico, CA Family Law Lawyer. Geoff A.Dulebohn, Esq. Chico, CA Family Law Attorney. Carolyn J. Chan. Chico, CA Family Law Attorney
Monday, October 17, 2016
Drugs+ Not-so Good Apps for Kids and Young People
The best way to know if you or the other parent could be affected by the issue of drug use or inappropriate use of media by kids, is to assume you WOULD be affected and then go from there. There is no bright line law or case law currently in California which seals a parent's fate as to marijuana in general right now, and probably no published cases on media app use.
Attorney herein researches these issues as they apply to California Family Law, and makes best efforts to remain current on new cases or decisions. Attorney is well aware of the long running case from Butte County that then seeming moved to another county just north of Butte, with varying detriment (depending on what one considers detrimental...) In any event, any type of drug, even if it's a prescription, can be cause for concern in a divorce case.
We all know that alcohol use can be a concern, but it's legal to buy it, right? It's legal to obtain many drugs straight off the shelf at the store.
When courts have to consider whether drug usage is going to affect custody, it will depend on what evidence is available, how good the attorney is at setting up the defense or attack of the issue, what the exact facts are and are they verifiable, and how; essentially, all of the foundation requirements for evidentiary hearing, and all of the foundation requirements for supporting evidence should be known; further, the lack of such evidence and the preclusion possibilities, as with all evidence, will come into play.
Trying cases with drugs involved should be left to attorneys who handle trials, because the proof and litigation aspects can be done with more precision. Many clients don't want to spend the funds to engage litigators to gain appropriate custody because they do not understand the time involved to make the defense, or the admissibility for proper charging evidence. Child endangerment does not apply to all situations, and in fact many fact patterns do not support child endangerment.
In family law we usually see many clients that just believe all they have to do is say something, and that makes it true. That is not the case necessarily. Conversely, clients often believe they can just say something is not true, and that will prove their case. That too is not necessarily true, because if it was, then there would be no NEED for any attorneys at all, because clients could prove everything themselves?
Obviously, clients, at least most of them, are not able to do that because they did not go to law school and then work for 20+ years at honing their skill. We have to deal with inaccurate facts, misleading statements, the social media nightmare, Facebook (often the absolute worst), and tons of Internet postings, admissions, accusations, texts, blogging, examples: Lively, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat, Kiks Messenger, WhatsApp, GroupMe,tumblr, Twitter,Musical.ly, You Now: Broadcast,Chat,and Watch Live Video, Burn Note,Whisper, Yik Yak, Omegle+Tinder (dangerous/or not appropriate for kids).
New apps come out all the time and they will never stop. These things can be worse than drugs in some ways as unknown people can take advantage of kids, teens, etc. A parent would never even know because most parents don't really know what kids are doing with their phones.
Personally, we would not give kids a phone, computer or any electronic device which was NOT monitored, it is very easy to obtain software to do this!
Attorney herein researches these issues as they apply to California Family Law, and makes best efforts to remain current on new cases or decisions. Attorney is well aware of the long running case from Butte County that then seeming moved to another county just north of Butte, with varying detriment (depending on what one considers detrimental...) In any event, any type of drug, even if it's a prescription, can be cause for concern in a divorce case.
We all know that alcohol use can be a concern, but it's legal to buy it, right? It's legal to obtain many drugs straight off the shelf at the store.
When courts have to consider whether drug usage is going to affect custody, it will depend on what evidence is available, how good the attorney is at setting up the defense or attack of the issue, what the exact facts are and are they verifiable, and how; essentially, all of the foundation requirements for evidentiary hearing, and all of the foundation requirements for supporting evidence should be known; further, the lack of such evidence and the preclusion possibilities, as with all evidence, will come into play.
Trying cases with drugs involved should be left to attorneys who handle trials, because the proof and litigation aspects can be done with more precision. Many clients don't want to spend the funds to engage litigators to gain appropriate custody because they do not understand the time involved to make the defense, or the admissibility for proper charging evidence. Child endangerment does not apply to all situations, and in fact many fact patterns do not support child endangerment.
In family law we usually see many clients that just believe all they have to do is say something, and that makes it true. That is not the case necessarily. Conversely, clients often believe they can just say something is not true, and that will prove their case. That too is not necessarily true, because if it was, then there would be no NEED for any attorneys at all, because clients could prove everything themselves?
Obviously, clients, at least most of them, are not able to do that because they did not go to law school and then work for 20+ years at honing their skill. We have to deal with inaccurate facts, misleading statements, the social media nightmare, Facebook (often the absolute worst), and tons of Internet postings, admissions, accusations, texts, blogging, examples: Lively, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat, Kiks Messenger, WhatsApp, GroupMe,tumblr, Twitter,Musical.ly, You Now: Broadcast,Chat,and Watch Live Video, Burn Note,Whisper, Yik Yak, Omegle+Tinder (dangerous/or not appropriate for kids).
New apps come out all the time and they will never stop. These things can be worse than drugs in some ways as unknown people can take advantage of kids, teens, etc. A parent would never even know because most parents don't really know what kids are doing with their phones.
Personally, we would not give kids a phone, computer or any electronic device which was NOT monitored, it is very easy to obtain software to do this!
Chico Family Law Attorney C. Chan 530.359.8810 ... Win Your Case!
buttecountyfamilylawlawyer.blogspot.com/
Chico Family Law Attorney C. Chan 530.359.8810 . .... That 27k client (against advice of attorney herein) apparently went and signed a stipulated agreement ...
https://www.justia.com/lawyers/family-law/california/chico
Claimed Lawyer ProfileSocial Media. Mr. Maria Amaya. Chico, CA Family Law Lawyer. Geoff A.Dulebohn, Esq. Chico, CA Family Law Attorney. Carolyn J. Chan. Chico, CA Family Law Attorney. Michael Odowd Hays. Chico, CA Family Law Lawyer. Norman Jenkins Ryker III. Valerie Ann Miller. David Mikel Howard.Chico Family Legal Aid & Pro Bono Services - Justia California Lawyer ...
https://www.justia.com/lawyers/family-law/.../chico/legal-aid-and-pro-bono-services
... and research family legal aid and pro bono legal service organizations in Chico, ... Family, DUI andDivorce ... Family, Civil Rights, Consumer and Employment ... Contrary to popular belief, seeking the advice of a family law attorney does not ...
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Innocent Inmate Wins $20M Then Loses Half to Wife He Married While in Prison??!!
An Illinois appeals Court says the inmate CAN'T exclude the settlement funds from his "marital property".......the inmate, Mr. Juan Rivera, was in jail since 1992 for allegedly murdering an 11 year old child, but was cleared by DNA evidence and released in 2012. (story continued below....)
Mr. Rivera was married in 2000 (while in prison) and filed for divorce in 2014. Rivera argued that the settlement was not marital property as it stemmed from conduct that occurred in 1992, while the wife claimed it stemmed from the lawsuit filed after Rivera's overturned conviction in 2011.
The appeals court sided with Sanders-Rivera (the former wife) in a Sept. 30 decision (PDF)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IF THIS CASE WAS IN CALIFORNIA:
| Juan Rivera | |
|---|---|
Juan Rivera
| |
| Born | Juan A. Rivera, Jr. October 31, 1972 Puerto Rico |
| Known for | Being wrongfully convicted three times for the murder of Holly Staker and receiving the largest wrongful conviction settlement in US history |
Mr. Rivera was married in 2000 (while in prison) and filed for divorce in 2014. Rivera argued that the settlement was not marital property as it stemmed from conduct that occurred in 1992, while the wife claimed it stemmed from the lawsuit filed after Rivera's overturned conviction in 2011.
The appeals court sided with Sanders-Rivera (the former wife) in a Sept. 30 decision (PDF)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IF THIS CASE WAS IN CALIFORNIA:
Personal injuries that occur during the marriage
Family Code 2603 states:
“(a) “Community estate personal injury damages” as used in this section means all money or other property received or to be received by a person in satisfaction of a judgment for damages for the person’s personal injuries or pursuant to an agreement for the settlement or compromise of a claim for the damages, if the cause of action for the damages arose during the marriage, but is not separate property as described in Section 781, unless the money or other property has been commingled with other assets of the community estate.
(b) Community estate personal injury damages shall be assigned to the party who suffered the injuries unless the court, after taking into account the economic condition and needs of each party, the time that has elapsed since the recovery of the damages or the accrual of the cause of action, and all other facts of the case, determines that the interests of justice require another disposition.
In such a case, the community estate personal injury damages shall be assigned to the respective parties in such proportions as the court determines to be just, except that at least one-half of the damages shall be assigned to the party who suffered the injuries.”
In such a case, the community estate personal injury damages shall be assigned to the respective parties in such proportions as the court determines to be just, except that at least one-half of the damages shall be assigned to the party who suffered the injuries.”
If Mr. Rivera was represented in California, any attorney should definitely argue against the wife, since the entire settlement and law suit was because he was factually innocent, and had to suffer for decades PLUS his settlement is the largest in the entire country (as he was convicted THREE times!!!) In other words, although she did marry him, she was not in jail with him.
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Custody and TRO Temporary Restraining Orders
Domestic violence related Restraining Orders are a huge problem, and if you either need to fight one,
or obtain one, be forewarned-- it's very easy to GET a TRO, and defending against them is best
reserved for defense attorneys or at least attorneys who know litigation and not just "settlement."
Very few TRO claims are readily settled--clients are either too upset, too physically harmed, or they
made up facts in order to get back at a spouse. Attorney has seen plenty of vindictive TROs over
the years. Often Judges just rubberstamp them, and issue them for 3 years.
Beware if you need to defend against a DV TRO, because a vindictive spouse is the most
difficult to work with. Knowing that, you will need a lot of help to prevail.
Make sure your attorney can properly defend and fight for you. If not, you stand to lose quite
a bit, both financially, and emotionally.
If the DV TRO is issued against a party, that party cannot presumptively be the custodial parent.
This means that automatically, unless proven otherwise, you are out of the picture as
custodial parent, even if you already were the custodial parent. This would likely require
a trial to change that.
The best defense in such a case is to be prepared ahead of time, not after the fact.
Make sure your attorney is not simply focused on settling everything while you lose
out. Much of divorce these days requires the ability to litigate for the client.
Settling does not always work.
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