California Divorce Blawg

More Moms Paying Child Support

More women are paying child support these days, according to the latest survey of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML). In all, 55% of the respondents have cited an increase in the number of mothers who have been assigned to make child support payments over the past five years. Additionally, 42% of the divorce attorneys have seen the size of overall payment amounts rise during the same period of time. Click here to read the entire MarketWatch article.

Please be sure to visit www.hardinglaw.com, the website for the law firm of Harding & Associates, for more information on California family law.

How Much Would Your Child Support Be?

AllLaw.com has a nice little on-line California child support calculator on its website.  Admittedly the AllLaw calculator is not as sophisticated as those used by the California Courts and California lawyers, but it is sufficient to give you a "ballpark" idea of what you might be looking at.  Check it out by clicking here.

Please be sure to visit www.hardinglaw.com, the website for the law firm of Harding & Associates, for more information on California family law.

Without A Custody Order You Cannot Collect Child Support

Young Mr. Rodriquez's parents were divorced.  His mother was the primary custodial parent by a court order, and he had spent most of his life living with his mother.  During his senior year of high school it was decided that he would live with his aunt and uncle.  After a while the aunt and uncle decided they wanted child support from the mother, and they asked their county's child support collections agency for help.  The county tried, but failed.  The appellate court opinion affirmed the trial court's decision that only a person with court ordered custody can seek child support.  Here that would have been the mother, not the aunt and uncle.  Click here to read the entire opinion.

Please be sure to visit www.hardinglaw.com, the website for the law firm of Harding & Associates, for more information on California family law.

Military Dads Seek Fair Child Support

Like many military reservists, Mark Wetzel took a pay cut when he was called for active duty last year. Instead of the $31,000 he earns as a nursing assistant in a Philadelphia hospital, he received $27,000 as a Navy corpsman serving in Kosovo.

But one thing didn't change: his child-support payments. A family court declined to reduce the $899 a month he pays to his estranged wife and two children.

As more National Guard and reserve units are deployed for the war in Iraq - 216,800 have been called to active duty so far - more noncustodial parents find themselves in the same circumstances that Wetzel did. If they fall behind in child-support payments because of reduced wages, they could incur penalties when they return home.  Please click here to read the entire article.

Please be sure to visit www.hardinglaw.com, the website for the law firm of Harding & Associates, for more information on California family law.

Laches Defense Unavailable in Child Support Actions

California Family Code section 4502(c) applies retroactively and bars a parent from relying on laches to defend an action to enforce a child support order.   The California Supreme Court holds that the terms of the Family Code itself dictate retroactive application. Moreover, an exception to retroactive application of laws that create new duties does not apply to the laches defense as "Assertion of a laches defense seeks an equitable act of grace to relieve the burden of an existing obligation. Elimination of the defense does not create a new duty."  Click here for more.

Woman's Conviction For Domestic Violence Ends Right To Receive Spousal Support

California Family Code Section 4325 creates a rebutable presumption that a spouse convicted of domestic violence against the other spouse shall not receive spousal support.  In a recently published opinion the California Court of Appeals held that woman who was convicted of domestic violence against her husband could have her spousal support terminated even though the earlier settlement agreement awarding her the spousal support was the non-modifiable.  Click here to read the court's opinion.

Parents Cannot Waive Child Support Obligation

The California Court of Appeals reaffirmed that parents may not, by mutual agreement, waive their obligations toward their children.  Click here to read the opinion.