VAN HOOK: A valuable resource in this market

Certified Family Law Specialist DONALD F. CONVISER, owner of Warner Center Law Offices in Woodland Hills CA (818) 880-8990, offering a free confidential consultation regarding your divorce or family law concerns, representing Divorce and Family Law clients throughout Los Angeles county and Ventura county for over 35 years, brings you another informative blog, addressing the use of a VAN HOOK Motion to preserve the status quo during divorce proceedings, in a series of blogs designed to inform and educate readers about various areas of Divorce and Family Law, and how he deals with challenges presented to him.

I don't have to tell you what you already know: we are living in trying economic times - sales have drastically diminished, companies are going out of business, people are losing jobs, the values of their investments and homes have plummeted, people are having a hard time finding the money to pay their mortgages, real estate taxes, and homeowners' association dues, lenders are foreclosing, and that is having a snowball effect: marital stress is increasing, and people are divorcing at a faster rate.

In Marriage of VAN HOOK (1983) 147 Cal.App.3d 970, the Appellate Court authorized the entry of injunctive relief against a third party without the necessity of joining that third party in the divorce case proceedings, in order to preserve the status quo during the pendency of divorce proceedings, for the purpose of preserving community property until an equal division can be accomplished, stating at Page 986 of its opinion that the family law courts are allowed to freeze the assets of parties to a marital dissolution until the appropriate ownership, value, and equal distribution of the assets can be adjudicated.

In VAN HOOK, the Appellate Court authorized the issuance of preliminary injunctions restraining a judgment creditor of a spouse from executing on community property involved in a divorce proceeding,http://www.conviser.net upon the posting of an "undertaking" to protect the interest of the judgment creditor pursuant to Code of Civil Proceedure Section 529.

The VAN HOOK case authorizes the issuance in divorce cases of restraining orders to protect and preserve community property arguably even against foreclosures on mortgages in arrears.

I successfully used the VAN HOOK case as authority to tie up (and restrain distribution of any monies from) all of the 401K and pension assets of an estranged wife who had moved and spirited those assets out of California, until that case could be tried or otherwise resolved. When one party to a divorce remains in the family home, and the mortgage is in arrears, a VAN HOOK motion may be an appropriate vehicle to preserve the home pending trial or resolution of the divorce case.

A resourceful Divorce Attorney could concieve other creative uses for the VAN HOOK authority in Dissolution of Marriage and other Family Law cases.

Posted by DONALD F. CONVISER, a Certified Family Law Specialist in Woodland Hills CA, the owner of Warner Center Law Offices, representing divorce and family law clients in Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years, before the Superior Courts in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, Simi Valley, Ventura, San Fernando, Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Pomona, Santa Monica, Torrance and a host of others, representing family law and divorce clients in matters involving premarital agreements (prenuptial agreements), divorces, paternity cases (the mother or the alleged father), stepparent adoptions, nonmarital dissolutions, child support, spousal support, child custody, child visitation, and all other areas of family law practice. Call for a free confidential consultation. (818) 880-8990