Donald F. Conviser, Certified Family Law Specialist, owner of Warner Center Law Offices in Woodland Hills, serving clients for over 35 years in the Courts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, a San Fernando Valley law Family Law and Divorce Lawyer offering a free confidential consultation regarding your family law or divorce issues by calling him at 818-880-8990, writes today about DISCOVERY AFTER JUDGMENT.
How can you find out whether or not your former spouse's economic situation has changed to justify your seeking a modification of prior Child Support or Spousal Support orders?
California Family Code Sections 3664 and 3665 were designed by the legislature to provide an expeditious method to make that discovery in cases where the judgment ordered payment of child support or spousal support.
Those sections allow a party to serve a request for production of an income and expense declaration after judgment [including the adverse party's last-filed State and Federal Income Tax Returns], Form FL-396, once a year, following Judgent, via Certified Mail, return receipt requested. If no response is received within 35 days of service, or if the income and expense declaration received is incomplete, the requesting party may then serve a request for income and benefit information from employer, Form FL-397, upon the adverse party's employer via Certified Mail, return receipt requested.
The above provisions may be enforced by contempt of court proceedings, forfeiture to the aggrieved party of $500, plus all damages that the agrieved party may sustain as a result of the failure to comply, and/or the Court may issue a warrant for the arrest of the person who failed to comply.
Additionally, Family Code Section 3666 provides that upon the subsequent filing of a motion for modification or termination of support, if the Court finds that the income and expense declaration submitted by the responding party was incomplete, inaccurate, or missing the prior year's federal and state income tax returns, or that the income and expense declaration was not submitted in good faith, the Court may impose monetary sanctions against the responding party in the form of payment of all costs of the motion, including the filing fee and the costs of the depositions and subpoenas necessary to obtain complete and accurate information.
No other discovery is permitted after Judgment unless authorized by a judge or performed following the filing and service of a post-judgment Motion or OSC where that discovery is reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence in that proceeding. Otherwise, that other discovery would deemed to be an unauthorized "fishing expedition".
As a Los Angeles divorce lawyer and family law attorney, I have found it to be a good practice to file a request for production of income and expense declaration after judgment on an annual basis following entry of judgment, because support modifications cannot be made retroactively to a date prior to the filing of the motion or Order to Show Cause seeking such modification.
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2 comments:
I served my ex with FL-396 31 days ago. I didn't file it, though. Do I need to file it prior to requesting information from his employer in 4 more day?
Hello Mr. Conviser,
I was served with a deficient "Request for Production of an Income and Expense Declaration After Judgment via certified return receipt letter. The reverse page 2 of FL -396 [Rev. January 1,2003] was not included and the obverse side, page 1 was not dated, but it was signed by the petitioner. My question is, "Am I still required to respond in full even with those two blatant deficiencies?"
I would greatly appreciate your response to the above matter and for obvious reasons, I'd prefer to keep my identity from appearing on this blog to the public. I do not have a problem identifying my self to you though.
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