QUESTION: What are my financial rights in a divorce if I move from our home and out of state pending divorce, and how do I protect my existing assets? There are no children.
MY ANSWER: Your financial rights don't change if you move out of state during a divorce.
However, your ability to handle your part of the divorce and/or to deal effectively with your spouse, your attorney, and the Court may be impaired if you move away during the divorce, so you should consider whether it is worth taking that risk in determining whether or not you move away before or during the divorce.
I don't know anything about you, your income, your spouse's income, your separate assets, the community assets, or the community obligations, so I am unable to assess your "financial rights", but you may have separate property and community property rights, spousal support rights, and other rights as well.
You should consult an experienced Family Law Attorney regarding the specifics of your marriage and your situation, to get an assessment of your "financial rights".
To protect your assets, you should retain an experienced Family Law Attorney to file, serve, and prosecute a divorce case on your behalf.
Once your spouse is served with the Summons in the Divorce case, the Standard Family Law Restraining Orders on the reverse side of the Summons will be binding on your spouse, including orders restraining your spouse from transferring, encumbering, hypothecating, concealing, or in any way disposing of any property, real or personal, whether community, quasi-community, or separate, without your written consent or an order of the Court, except in the usual course of business or for the necessities of life, and from cashing, borrowing against, canceling, disposing of, or changing the beneficiaries of any insurance or other coverage, including life, health, automobile, and disability, held for your benefit.
This educational blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, an effective and aggressive Los Angeles Family Law Attorney and Divorce Lawyer serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years,owner of Warner Center Law Offices, with offices in Woodland Hills and Century City. Call 888.632.4447 or 818.880.8990 for a free confidential consultation with a Certified Family Law Specialist to discuss your divorce or family law issues. | www.conviser.net | www.conviserfamilylaw.com |
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
HOW DO I FIND A LAWYER WHO SPECIALIZES IN DIVORCE?
QUESTION: How do I find an attorney who specializes in divorce?
MY ANSWER: You can go on the State Bar website and search for Certified Family Law Specialists in your county, and call and interview them until you find one you feel comfortable dealing with.
This educational blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, an effective and aggressive Los Angeles Family Law Attorney and Divorce Lawyer serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years,owner of Warner Center Law Offices, with offices in Woodland Hills and Century City. Call 888.632.4447 or 818.880.8990 for a free confidential consultation with a Certified Family Law Specialist to discuss your divorce or family law issues. | www.conviser.net | www.conviserfamilylaw.com |
MY ANSWER: You can go on the State Bar website and search for Certified Family Law Specialists in your county, and call and interview them until you find one you feel comfortable dealing with.
This educational blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, an effective and aggressive Los Angeles Family Law Attorney and Divorce Lawyer serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years,owner of Warner Center Law Offices, with offices in Woodland Hills and Century City. Call 888.632.4447 or 818.880.8990 for a free confidential consultation with a Certified Family Law Specialist to discuss your divorce or family law issues. | www.conviser.net | www.conviserfamilylaw.com |
Thursday, May 5, 2011
HOW DO I GET A DIVORCE?
QUESTION: How do I get a divorce? I want to get a divorce. What do I do?
MY ANSWER: The easiest and best (but not the cheapest) way to get a divorce and minimize your work and stress in getting a divorce is to retain an experienced Family Law Attorney to handle your divorce. If you can't afford an attorney, you should go to your local Superior Court's self-help clinic to obtain assistance in doing your own divorce.
This educational blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, an effective and aggressive Los Angeles Divorce Lawyer and Family Attorney serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years,owner of Warner Center Law Offices, with offices in Woodland Hills and Century City. Call 888.632.4447 or 818.880.8990 for a free confidential consultation with a Certified Family Law Specialist to discuss your divorce or family law issues. | www.conviser.net | www.conviserfamilylaw.com |
MY ANSWER: The easiest and best (but not the cheapest) way to get a divorce and minimize your work and stress in getting a divorce is to retain an experienced Family Law Attorney to handle your divorce. If you can't afford an attorney, you should go to your local Superior Court's self-help clinic to obtain assistance in doing your own divorce.
This educational blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, an effective and aggressive Los Angeles Divorce Lawyer and Family Attorney serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years,owner of Warner Center Law Offices, with offices in Woodland Hills and Century City. Call 888.632.4447 or 818.880.8990 for a free confidential consultation with a Certified Family Law Specialist to discuss your divorce or family law issues. | www.conviser.net | www.conviserfamilylaw.com |
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
WHAT SHOULD I DO IF MY EX BUYS DRUGS FOR OUR DAUGHTER?
QUESTION: Can I keep my child from visiting her non-custodial parent? Can I keep my daughter from seeing her mother and/or press charges if she buys our daughter drugs? This is not the first offense for the mother. The Past incident involved alcohol at age 12.
MY ANSWER: You can't just violate existing custody or visitation orders which provide for visitation and/or custodial rights of the mother. You choices are to file an OSC to modify child custody and/or visitation (perhaps with an Ex Parte Application requesting that the Court suspend mother's custody or visitation pending hearing), to report the crime to the police, and/or to report the matter to Child Protective Services - with the real possibility that the Social Worker may institute Dependency Court proceedings. The results of those proceedings (Family Court, Criminal and/or Dependency Court) will likely provide a solution for the problem.
This educational blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, an effective and aggressive Los Angeles Divorce Lawyer and Family Law Attorney serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years,owner of Warner Center Law Offices, with offices in Woodland Hills and Century City. Call 888.632.4447 or 818.880.8990 for a free confidential consultation with a Certified Family Law Specialist to discuss your divorce or family law issues. | www.conviser.net | www.conviserfamilylaw.com |
MY ANSWER: You can't just violate existing custody or visitation orders which provide for visitation and/or custodial rights of the mother. You choices are to file an OSC to modify child custody and/or visitation (perhaps with an Ex Parte Application requesting that the Court suspend mother's custody or visitation pending hearing), to report the crime to the police, and/or to report the matter to Child Protective Services - with the real possibility that the Social Worker may institute Dependency Court proceedings. The results of those proceedings (Family Court, Criminal and/or Dependency Court) will likely provide a solution for the problem.
This educational blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, an effective and aggressive Los Angeles Divorce Lawyer and Family Law Attorney serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years,owner of Warner Center Law Offices, with offices in Woodland Hills and Century City. Call 888.632.4447 or 818.880.8990 for a free confidential consultation with a Certified Family Law Specialist to discuss your divorce or family law issues. | www.conviser.net | www.conviserfamilylaw.com |
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
WILL A PRENUP PROTECT ME AGAINST MY FIANCE'S PREMARITAL DEBTS?
QUESTION: Will a prenup protect me from my upcoming spouse's judgments, tax obligations or other debt that he had prior to the marriage?
MY ANSWER: It may protect you to some extent, depending upon its provisions.
However, you need to be aware of additional things that you should do to insulate you from your fiance's liabilities.
Protect your earnings and income by deposting them into a separate bank account under your sole name to which your husband has no right of access, and don't commingle community funds or your husband's income (which would be community property absent a Prenuptial Agreement making his income his separate property) in that account.
Community property of you and your husband would be vulnerable to your husband's premarital liabilities, so you may want the Prenuptial Agreement to opt out of the community property system and convert acquisitions during the marriage into your sole and separate property.
Do not commingle separate property and community property.
Discuss, with your Premarital Agreement lawyer, your desire for protection from your husband's premarital judgments, tax obligations, and debt, so that the lawyer can draft the Premarital Agreement with that protection in mind.
This educational blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, an effective and aggressive Los Angeles Family Law Attorney and Divorce Lawyer serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years,owner of Warner Center Law Offices, with offices in Woodland Hills and Century City. Call 888.632.4447 or 818.880.8990 for a free confidential consultation with a Certified Family Law Specialist to discuss your divorce or family law issues. | www.conviser.net | www.conviserfamilylaw.com |
MY ANSWER: It may protect you to some extent, depending upon its provisions.
However, you need to be aware of additional things that you should do to insulate you from your fiance's liabilities.
Protect your earnings and income by deposting them into a separate bank account under your sole name to which your husband has no right of access, and don't commingle community funds or your husband's income (which would be community property absent a Prenuptial Agreement making his income his separate property) in that account.
Community property of you and your husband would be vulnerable to your husband's premarital liabilities, so you may want the Prenuptial Agreement to opt out of the community property system and convert acquisitions during the marriage into your sole and separate property.
Do not commingle separate property and community property.
Discuss, with your Premarital Agreement lawyer, your desire for protection from your husband's premarital judgments, tax obligations, and debt, so that the lawyer can draft the Premarital Agreement with that protection in mind.
This educational blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, an effective and aggressive Los Angeles Family Law Attorney and Divorce Lawyer serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years,owner of Warner Center Law Offices, with offices in Woodland Hills and Century City. Call 888.632.4447 or 818.880.8990 for a free confidential consultation with a Certified Family Law Specialist to discuss your divorce or family law issues. | www.conviser.net | www.conviserfamilylaw.com |
Monday, May 2, 2011
CAN I REVOKE OUR MEDIATION AGREEMENT?
QUESTION: Can I revoke our mediation agreement if I no longer agree? The judge has not signed it because we have a court date coming up. I believe that I should have full custody, since the father of my kids has no residence, we live in different counties, and dad only gets the kids 4 days out of the month. He lied to the court about where he lives and about working. His work and income are under the table. I really want to revoke the agreement and let the judge hear our case.
MY ANSWER: Whether you can change the terms of your mediation agreement is dependent at least in part on the terms of the mediation agreement and when and where the mediation agreement was entered.
If the Mediation Agreement was a Los Angeles Superior Court Conciliation Court Agreement and Stipulated Order re Custody and Parenting Plan, in order to revoke that Agreement, you would need to FAX or mail a written objection to that Agreement to the Supervisor of Family Court Services before the date of the next scheduled hearing or no later than 10 days from the date of entry into that Agreement, whichever occurs first. Other counties have their own rules regarding whether or not you can back out of a Mediation Agreement, and if so, the deadline for doing so.
If the time limit for objection has already passed, you can still try to object to the mediation agreement at the time of the hearing.
If you have just gotten "cold feet" after entering the Agreement, that would likely not provide grounds for the Court to set aside the Agreement.
If you have no admissible evidence regarding the father's income or earnings, the fact that you know or believe that the father lied to the Court about his income does not provide any basis for modifying the existing Child Support Order.
If you just learned since the time the Mediation Agreement was entered that the father has no residence or lives in a different county from the place where he claimed to live, you should bring that to the Court's attention. If you knew those facts at the time you entered into the agreement, you may have a harder time trying to persuade the Judge to change any order that was based on the Mediation Agreement.
Your question implies that the Mediation Agreement provides that the father has the children four days a month, and that there had been a prior hearing where the father lied to the Court about his work and income. Since you didn't set forth the specific terms of the Mediation Agreement, the specific orders that you want to change, or the specific orders that you want the Court to make, I am unable to further comment on your issues.
You would best retain an experienced Family Law Attorney to represent you in child custody and child support proceedings with the father.
This educational blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, an effective and aggressive Los Angeles Family Law Attorney and Divorce Lawyer serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years,owner of Warner Center Law Offices, with offices in Woodland Hills and Century City. Call 888.632.4447 or 818.880.8990 for a free confidential consultation with a Certified Family Law Specialist to discuss your divorce or family law issues. | www.conviser.net | www.conviserfamilylaw.com |
MY ANSWER: Whether you can change the terms of your mediation agreement is dependent at least in part on the terms of the mediation agreement and when and where the mediation agreement was entered.
If the Mediation Agreement was a Los Angeles Superior Court Conciliation Court Agreement and Stipulated Order re Custody and Parenting Plan, in order to revoke that Agreement, you would need to FAX or mail a written objection to that Agreement to the Supervisor of Family Court Services before the date of the next scheduled hearing or no later than 10 days from the date of entry into that Agreement, whichever occurs first. Other counties have their own rules regarding whether or not you can back out of a Mediation Agreement, and if so, the deadline for doing so.
If the time limit for objection has already passed, you can still try to object to the mediation agreement at the time of the hearing.
If you have just gotten "cold feet" after entering the Agreement, that would likely not provide grounds for the Court to set aside the Agreement.
If you have no admissible evidence regarding the father's income or earnings, the fact that you know or believe that the father lied to the Court about his income does not provide any basis for modifying the existing Child Support Order.
If you just learned since the time the Mediation Agreement was entered that the father has no residence or lives in a different county from the place where he claimed to live, you should bring that to the Court's attention. If you knew those facts at the time you entered into the agreement, you may have a harder time trying to persuade the Judge to change any order that was based on the Mediation Agreement.
Your question implies that the Mediation Agreement provides that the father has the children four days a month, and that there had been a prior hearing where the father lied to the Court about his work and income. Since you didn't set forth the specific terms of the Mediation Agreement, the specific orders that you want to change, or the specific orders that you want the Court to make, I am unable to further comment on your issues.
You would best retain an experienced Family Law Attorney to represent you in child custody and child support proceedings with the father.
This educational blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, an effective and aggressive Los Angeles Family Law Attorney and Divorce Lawyer serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years,owner of Warner Center Law Offices, with offices in Woodland Hills and Century City. Call 888.632.4447 or 818.880.8990 for a free confidential consultation with a Certified Family Law Specialist to discuss your divorce or family law issues. | www.conviser.net | www.conviserfamilylaw.com |
Sunday, May 1, 2011
CAN MY WIFE GET ALIMONY IF SHE EARNS MORE THAN I DO?
INQUIRER'S QUESTION: My wife abandoned me and our marriage, filed for divorce, and is asking for alimony. Can she get alimony if she makes more money than me? How can she sue me for alimony when she makes more money than I make?
MY ANSWER:
Your wife can request Spousal Support (Alimony) in her Petition, but that does not guarantee that the Court will award Spousal Support to her.
Since your wife earns more than you earn, you should request Spousal Support in your Response.
Whether you or your wife will be entitled to temporary or permanent Spousal Support will depend upon certain specific facts - Temporary Spousal Support would be per your county's temporary Spousal Support Guidelines, which are based on your income and her income, and permanent Spousal Support would be based on the factors addressed in Family Code Section 4320.
If your wife earns significantly more than what you earn, you may be entitled to an award of Attorney's fees.
You should promptly consult an experienced Family Law Attorney regarding your divorce case to ensure that you timely file a proper Response to the Petition (among other things), and you would best retain an experienced Family Law Attorney to represent you in your divorce case.
This educational blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, an effective and aggressive Los Angeles Family Law Attorney and Divorce Lawyer serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years,owner of Warner Center Law Offices, with offices in Woodland Hills and Century City. Call 888.632.4447 or 818.880.8990 for a free confidential consultation with a Certified Family Law Specialist to discuss your divorce or family law issues. | www.conviser.net | www.conviserfamilylaw.com |
MY ANSWER:
Your wife can request Spousal Support (Alimony) in her Petition, but that does not guarantee that the Court will award Spousal Support to her.
Since your wife earns more than you earn, you should request Spousal Support in your Response.
Whether you or your wife will be entitled to temporary or permanent Spousal Support will depend upon certain specific facts - Temporary Spousal Support would be per your county's temporary Spousal Support Guidelines, which are based on your income and her income, and permanent Spousal Support would be based on the factors addressed in Family Code Section 4320.
If your wife earns significantly more than what you earn, you may be entitled to an award of Attorney's fees.
You should promptly consult an experienced Family Law Attorney regarding your divorce case to ensure that you timely file a proper Response to the Petition (among other things), and you would best retain an experienced Family Law Attorney to represent you in your divorce case.
This educational blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, an effective and aggressive Los Angeles Family Law Attorney and Divorce Lawyer serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years,owner of Warner Center Law Offices, with offices in Woodland Hills and Century City. Call 888.632.4447 or 818.880.8990 for a free confidential consultation with a Certified Family Law Specialist to discuss your divorce or family law issues. | www.conviser.net | www.conviserfamilylaw.com |
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