2010 February Archive

Every time the tax laws change, that might also mean that your guideline child support payment will change. 2010 was no exception. The reason why this happens is because child support is calculated by using the parents’ net disposable income, i.e, income left over after paying taxes. If you or the other parent is now paying more or less taxes than you were before, due to the new laws, then the child support payment may be modified. It may be modified only slightly, but it may also be significant.

This may be especially important to look into if it has been a long time since child support has been calculated. Over time, as income changes, a person’s tax bracket might change with it, or other things might have changed, such as how much money one gives to charitable causes. The laws that affect how taxes are calculated will also affect child support.

If you have any other questions about how the new 2010 tax law changes would change your child support payment, call us today. We are here to answer your questions.

If you or a loved one wants to change your child support payment or avoid having it changed , the family law attorneys at Wallin & Klarich can help you through the process. Our experienced San Diego California child support attorneys can provide you with legal advice and will be your advocate in a family law court. If you’re thinking of hiring an attorney for a family law matter, call us today at 1-888-749-7428 for a consultation, or fill out the online case evaluation form to the right.

Oftentimes, divorced parents are still on amicable or semi-amicable terms such that they can discuss California child custody, child visitation, and child support in a civil way. In fact, they are often able to come to agreements on their own, without having to go to court. When this happens, the question is then whether or not they should make their agreement a court order.

The answer will depend on whether or not you want the agreement to be enforceable. If your ex-spouse used to pay you $500 in child support every month, and now you and he agreed to $600 every month, you may want to make that a court order. Without a court order, you will have a difficult time enforcing the agreement that you made.

Also, let’s say you are a father that enjoys every other weekend with your children as part of the latest child visitation order. If you and your children’s mother are now agreeing that you can have the children for 4 more days every month, then you may want to let the court know and make the new change a stipulated order of the court. Not only would it help you enforce your new visitation schedule, but it will also be a basis for a new child support order, which could mean that you would be paying less in child support each month.

On the other hand, if you do not want the new agreement to be enforceable by the court or by the other parent, then it might be better for you to leave the agreement “off the books,” so to speak.

If you have any other questions about child custody, child visitation or child support, call us today. We are here to answer your questions.

If you or a loved one wants to change a court order, the family law attorneys at Wallin & Klarich can help you through the process. Our experienced Orange County family law attorneys can provide you with legal advice and will be your advocate in a family law court. If you’re thinking of hiring an attorney for a family law matter, call us today at 1-888-749-7428 for a consultation, or fill out the online case evaluation form to the right.

Sometimes one spouse will want a divorce but the other spouse does not. Or sometimes the other spouse is okay with the divorce, but does not want to be involved in the divorce proceedings and does not want to hire a lawyer or go to court. What can you do then?

You can still file for divorce. When you file, you will need to serve your spouse with all your paperwork. If your spouse does not file a response within 30 days, you can file for default. When you file for default, that means that your spouse is now restricted from participating in the divorce proceedings. This means that the judge will give you what you asked for in your original divorce petition, as long as what you asked for was fair and equitable.

Sometimes going forward with a divorce when the other spouse does not want to participate means that the divorce will proceed more quickly and smoothly (and cheaply) than other wise. If you find yourself in this situation, you should consult a Tustin divorce lawyer who can help get your divorce done without any problems. Give us a call. We are here to answer your questions.

If you or a loved one wants to file for divorce, the family law attorneys at Wallin & Klarich can help you through the process. Our experienced California family law attorneys can provide you with legal advice and will be your advocate in a family law court. If you’re thinking of hiring an attorney for a dissolution, call us today at 1-888-749-7428 for a consultation, or fill out the online case evaluation form to the right.

Many parents ask us whether their child has a say in what the child custody and visitation arrangement is. People want to know if the judge will listen to the child’s input when making a child custody/visitation order. Some parents ask whether the child gets to choose with whom he or she wants to live.

The answer will depend on the age of the child and also on the judge. If the child is too young, then the child’s preferences are entirely irrelevant. If the child is old enough, certainly most judges will want to hear the child’s point of view, although most judges will not make a decision based entirely on what the child wants.

How do you know when the child is old enough to have a voice? You don’t. It will depend on the judge. A good rule of thumb is 15 years old. Most judges will listen to what a 15 year old’s opinion on the matter. A judge will give less weight to the opinion of a 12 year old or even a 14 year old.

16 and 17 year old children, of course, are more likely to have their opinions heard. Of course, this does not mean that the judge will do whatever they ask—it just means they will consider it when making a decision.

If you are going through a child custody and visitation dispute, call us if you have any other questions. We are here to answer your questions.

If you or a loved is going through a divorce, the family law attorneys at Wallin & Klarich can help you through the process. Our experienced California family law child custody attorneys can provide you with legal advice and will be your advocate in a family law court. If you’re thinking of hiring an attorney for a family law matter, call us today at 1-888-749-7428 for a consultation, or fill out the online case evaluation form to the right.

Sometimes people want to change or modify their child custody and visitation but they do not want to go to court. They may not have the money to pay a lawyer to go to court for them. Can this dilemma be resolved? Yes. You can try to modify your child custody and visitation arrangement without going to court.

In order to do this, you will need to come to an agreement with the other parent. If you and the other parent are both on the same page and agree on what the change should be, then you can write up the agreement that you have made and ask the judge to sign that and make it a court order. If you need help writing up your agreement, an experienced family lawyer can help you with that. The lawyer will not even have to see the judge to get this done.

Frequently, when child custody and visitation change, child support will change as well. If you and the other parent agree on what the new child support should be, you can put that in your agreement as well. By reaching agreements as to all these issues, you and the other parent will save a lot of time and money.

If you would like more advice as to how to proceed with modifying your child custody and visitation arrangement, please give us a call. We are here to answer your questions.

If you or a loved one wants to modify an existing custody agreement, the family law attorneys at Wallin & Klarich can help you through the process. Our experienced Orange County modification of child custody attorneys can provide you with legal advice and will be your advocate in a family law court. If you’re thinking of hiring an attorney for a family law matter, call us today at 1-888-749-7428 for a consultation, or fill out the online case evaluation form to the right.

When you’re going through a divorce or child custody dispute in California, it is often important to know your spouse’s (or ex-spouse’s) income. For many people, this is not a problem because they are able to obtain the spouse’s pay stubs or W-2. When your spouse is paid under the table or in cash, it can be more difficult to find out how much your spouse truly makes every month.

The first thing you can and should do when trying to find out how much money your spouse makes is to simply ask. You can ask your spouse to fill out an Income and Expense Declaration where your spouse lists his or her monthly income and expenses. This document must be signed under penalty of perjury, which means the true and correct information better be written down on that form or else the spouse can face sanctions by the court.

Another way to discover your spouse’s true income is by conducting discovery, such as depositions. You can have a lawyer ask questions of your spouse’s employer, co-workers, and any one else who might have the information, to find out how much money your spouse makes. For example, if your spouse typically makes a large bonus at the end of the year but is now saying that he did not get a bonus, your lawyer can depose the witnesses listed above to find out whether that is true.

You can also hire a private investigator to obtain information about your spouse’s employment. Perhaps you do not know where your spouse works or the name of his employer. Or if your spouse is self-employed, perhaps you do not know how many clients he has or how many sales he makes. A private investigator may help you obtain this information.

Depositions and private investigators both require money, but if it helps you discover how much income your spouse really takes in every month, they may be well worth the investment. If you have more questions about discovering your spouse’s true income, call us today. We are here to answer your questions.

If you or a loved one wants to file for divorce, the family law attorneys at Wallin & Klarich can help you through the process. Our experienced California family law attorneys can provide you with legal advice and will be your advocate in a family law court. If you’re thinking of hiring an attorney for a dissolution, call us today at 1-888-749-7428 for a consultation, or fill out the online case evaluation form to the right.

You might be wondering how quickly you can be divorced in California. In California, the quickest you can become divorced is in 6 months. However, becoming divorced and going through a divorce mean two entirely different things. The divorce proceedings could take much shorter or much longer than 6 months.

We have seen divorce cases go on for years. This happens when the divorcing parties cannot agree on the terms of the divorce. Even if the divorce proceedings continue for years, the parties may still be able to become divorced after the first 6 months. To do that, they file the appropriate paperwork to ask the judge to finalize their “status” as single individuals. Once that happens, they are no longer married, even if their divorce proceedings continue.

We have also seen divorce cases that are finished quickly. For example, we finished one of our divorces in only 5 days. Again, the couple’s status as two separate single individuals did not happen until after 6 months, but the proceedings themselves were completed in less than a week.

If you are going through a divorce or you are looking for a divorce lawyer, it is important to hire a lawyer who knows how to handle all kinds of divorces, whether they take 5 days or 2 years. If you have any questions about your divorce, give us a call. We are here to answer your questions.

If you or a loved one wants to file for divorce, the family law attorneys at Wallin & Klarich can help you through the process. Our experienced California family law divorce attorneys can provide you with legal advice and will be your advocate in a family law court. If you’re thinking of hiring an attorney for a dissolution, call us today at 1-888-749-7428 for a consultation, or fill out the online case evaluation form to the right.

If a party opens a Department of Child support case in San Bernardino, jurisdiction over the issue of child support then becomes the controlling jurisdiction of the Department of Child Support Services Court which is separately located from the central courthouse in downtown San Bernardino.

The Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) handles the enforcement actions of a child support order, however, due to the voluminous amount of active cases the county manages and assists, it may take you awhile before you see any results in the initiation or enforcement of your child support order. Delays will happen and the red tape of talking to a representative or child support attorney from the department directly will inevitably occur.

The experienced San Bernardino child support attorneys at Wallin & Klarich can assist you and represent you in obtaining a child support order against the absent parent. We will ensure that you have available access to your attorney at Wallin and Klarich and that attention to your case is a high priority. Contact the experienced San Bernardino family law attorneys at Wallin & Klarich now at 1-888-749-7428 or visit us at www.wkfamilylaw.com.

The way you begin a divorce is by filling out a form called a Petition for Dissolution. Before you fill out this form, it would be wise to make sure you have all the necessary information gathered together. You will need to know and identify all the separate property and community property. You will also need to know and identify all the separate debts and community debts. Separate property is all property that was acquired before the date of marriage or after the date of separation. It also includes gifts and inheritances acquired before, after and during the marriage. Community property is all the property obtained by either spouse or both spouses after the date of marriage but before the date of separation, namely wages.

It is extremely important to make sure that your Petition for Dissolution is filled out correctly and completely. The final judgment will have to reflect that facts as set forth in the Petition. This means that if you do fill out the Petition for Dissolution wrong, you may have to file an Amended Petition for Dissolution later on in the divorce. This would only stall the proceedings and could cause an interruption in the completion of the divorce itself. To make sure you fill out the form correctly, you should speak to a knowledgeable divorce lawyer near you.

If you have any other questions about how to fill out a Petition for Dissolution, please call us. We are here to answer your questions. Our experienced California family law divorce attorneys can provide you with legal advice and will be your advocate in a family law court. If you’re thinking of hiring an attorney for a dissolution, call us today at 1-888-749-7428 for a consultation, or fill out the online case evaluation form to the right.

If a social worker decides to remove a child from a home, they must show the court that the child falls within the court’s jurisdiction to make orders on behalf of the child’s release or detention. The social worker must also show the following pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code Section 319 and California Rules of Court 5.676, 5.678:

1. Continuance in the parent’s custody is contrary to the child’s welfare; and any of the following:
   • There is substantial danger to the child’s physical health or emotional health and no other means to protect the child then with removal from the home;
   • There is substantial evidence that the parent is likely to flee with the child;
   • The child left a previous court-ordered placement;
   • The child is unwilling to return to the home and had been physically or sexually abused by someone living in the home.

If your child or children are removed from your home by Social Services, do not hesitate to contact our experienced Southern California dependency attorneys at Wallin & Klarich as they can help you immediately through the complex legal process in dependency courts. Our San Bernardino dependency attorneys have many years of experience and will work towards the best possible outcome of your representation. Visit our website at www.wklaw.com or call us at 1-888-749-7428.