CAN I GET MONEY FROM MY HUSBAND IF MY RESTRAINING ORDER WAS DENIED?

QUESTION: If I filed for a restraining order and it was denied, can I get money from him and get my stuff out of the house? ================================================= MY RESPONSE: If your husband earns significantly more than you do, you could file a Divorce and an Order to Show Cause for Temporary Spousal Support and Attorney's Fees and Costs. You would best retain an experienced Family Law Attorney to represent you. If you can't find an attorney willing to represent you, you can go to your Superior Court's self-help clinic for assistance filing your own Divorce case and OSC.

HOW TO SERVE DIVORCE PAPERS TO SOMEONE IN JAIL?

QUESTION: How can I serve divorce papers do someone in jail without using a process server? ================================================ MY RESPONSE: Unless your husband is willing to accept service and return a signed FL-117 Notice and Acknowledgment of Receipt (which would need to be served on him with your divorce papers by someone other than you over the age of 18 years), you will need to have your husband served by a Process Server (private, the Marshall or the Sheriff) who can get access to your husband in jail to serve the papers. Parties cannot serve papers in their own cases.

HOW CAN MY DAUGHTER GET A DIVORCE FROM A HUSBAND WHO LEFT HER?

QUESTION: My daughter's husband walked out on her after 23 yrs. of marriage, stating he wants a Divorce. This was one year ago this month. He retained a "Paralegal" (save on Attorney Fees) to process paperwork etc. My daughter filled out and turned all documentation presented to her back to the paralegal. Her husband (my son-in-law) has done nothing. The paralegal is continueouly contacting him for the completed forms so she can present them to the court. My daughter constantly contacts her husband, but he keeps replying "I need another week" over and over. My daughter wants to get this over with and move on. He put her through so much anguish and heartbreak and now he's not doing anything. She is beside herself - he is the one who wanted a divorce. Now he is in hiding somewhere!! What are her options?? She wants this divorce now. He is playing mind games with her and she feels she is in limbo, not knowing what he is up to. What should she do? ================================================== MY RESPONSE: Your daughter should at least consult, if not retain, an experienced Family Law Attorney to represent her in her divorce. If the Paralegal served her with a Summons and Petition, she has 30 days within which to file and serve her Response, to avoid her default being entered. If her husband earns significantly more than she earns, she would likely qualify for lifetime Spousal Support and Attorney's Fee orders. If she can't find a lawyer to represent her, she should at least have a consultation with an experienced Family Law Attorney. She can also go to the Superior Court's self-help clinic for assistance preparing the documents for her divorce. If her husband is concealing his whereabouts, any documents that need to be served on her husband can be served (by someone other than your daughter, over the age of 18 years) by mail sent to her husband's address of record - which would be the address used for him on the Summons and Petition for Dissolution of Marriage. If no divorce case was ever filed or served on her husband's behalf, she can file her own divorce case, with the assistance of a volunteer from the Court's self-help clinic. Service can be a problem if her husband is concealing his whereabouts; your daughter might need to hire a lawyer on a limited scope basis to have a due diligence search performed in an attempt to locate her husband, and if he is not located, to seek and obtain an order from the Court for Publication of Summons, to arrange for the Summons to be published in a newspaper of general circulation for four consecutive weeks, and to obtain and file Proof of Service by Publication with the Court. Once her husband is served, she can proceed to seek entry of his default if he has not filed his Response to her action for Dissolution of Marriage. Retaining an attorney would be the easiest way for her to obtain her divorce, but if she can't find a lawyer to represent her, she should make use of the self-help clinic's free assistance whenever needed

IS MY HUSBAND'S MONTHLY PENSION PAYOUT COMMUNITY PROPERTY?

QUESTION: I was widowed in 2003 by my late husband's death from cancer. I remarried in 2010, perhaps too hastily. My current husband retired in 2010 with a pension, $75k/year (just a figure for discussion). He says that money, earned before we married, though paid out now as a monthly salary essentially, is not part of the community property, and that if I want to buy anything, "I need to save my pennies." I have a business in California and own my own commercial property, unencumbered. Each one of us has the property we owned prior to marriage set up in separate trusts. We have our separate checking accounts and pay bills separately. My current income of $75k/year, earned from my business is community property, but he says the monthly/annual pension payout he receives (which to me is income) is not community property because the pension was earned prior to our marriage. When we married, I thought our joint annual income, my business income and his pension income, was community property. I might note, that when we married, my business/home were 350 miles from him (and still are), so we have never lived under the same roof. I thought by now we would be. Now that we are in the second year of marriage, he has told me that he will never move to my town, a beautiful resort town (30 minutes from my door to ski lift). He said if we want to be together under one roof, I must close my business and move "over there." My plan would be to rent out my commercial property but the income generated from that would be a quarter of his pension. Or I would have to sell my property and live off the money, while he keeps the house he owns prior to our marriage. He will never put my name on the deed but he has made it clear that when he dies I will get everything. I don't want to live as a pauper waiting for my husband to die. Is his pension payout community property? ================================================== MY RESPONSE: No. Those are tough choices that your husband gives you to make. His promise to leave everything to you when he dies is unenforceable. Even if he makes a will, he can always change it. If his pension was all earned before your 2010 marriage, i.e., if he was already retired when you married him, its payments are his separate property. Only to the extent, if any, that his pension was still being earned after your 2010 marriage, would the community have any interest in the pension payments, and that interest would be very small (if any).

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CAN MY EX-WIFE MOVE THE KIDS OUT OF CALIF. WITHOUT MY APPROVAL?

QUESTION: My ex-wife and I share 50/50 legal custody and 70/30 physical custody. She has been living with her parents for the past 9 years. She doesn't have a job. Her parents are moving out of state and she wants to move with them. How can I contest the move of my kids and gain full custody? =============================================== MY RESPONSE: If you do nothing, she will succeed. Retain an experienced Family Law Attorney to represent you in an RFO (Request for Order, formerly called an Order to Show Cause) seeking Orders that the children not be moved out of California. Whether or not you can gain full custody of your children would be based on factors that were not addressed in your question. =============================================== 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 |

DO I HAVE TO PAY CHILD SUPPORT FOR A DISABLED ADULT CHILD?

QUESTION: My ex is trying to make me pay for a child who is 20 years of age. She claims he is disabled, yet he is attending college and living on his own in a dorm. When does child support stop for a disabled child if he was disabled. And how do I prove he is not disabled? ============================================== MY RESPONSE: A parent can be ordered by the Court to pay child support for a disabled adult child of the marriage. You can file an RFO (Request for Order, formerly called a Motion) for your expert Medical Doctor (or Psychiatrist or Psychologist, depending on the claimed disability) to examine the adult child (at your expense), and you can file an RFO (formerly called Order to Show Cause) to terminate support for your adult child, based on your expert's opinion, if the expert's opinion is that your adult child is not disabled. You will need to have your expert testify at the hearing on your RFO. ============================================== 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 |