If the parents live relatively close to each other and the children are not in school most courts will strongly encourage a 50-50 split of physical custody, more often than not making a court order of one week on and one week off or splitting child custody down the middle week by week. However, in a recent article by Renee Leff, an LMFT and JD certified in infant mental health, the author believes that the courts need to strongly consider having the mother be the primary caretaker until the child is 3 years old.

Ms. Leff stresses the importance of a young child feeling safe in one household and that moving the child back and forth between two homes is not in the child’s best interest. Our family law firm has been successfully representing both mothers and fathers in child custody battles for over 30 years. It will be very interesting to see if any family law courts begin to revert back to the “tender years doctrine” and follow the suggestions of Ms. Leff.

We would love to know your feelings on this very important legal issue. Feel free to respond below

While the ages of the kids (10 years old) might lead to a snap judgment that Casteel may have gone a little overboard, violence at school has been a boilerplate issue ever since the Columbine shootings. And the violence isn’t reserved strictly for high school kids either. Just this week, a 10-year-old boy was arrested and charged with stabbing his 12-year-old friend to death in the driveway of their home.

Police investigated the complaint and did find a pocket knife in the possession of the bully, though the boy denies making any threats towards Casteel’s son.
Regardless, a judge felt there was enough evidence to grant the restraining order, the first time ever in Riverside County that one student has been court ordered to stay away from another. The terms of the restraining order haven’t been released, so it is unclear if the bully will be allowed to attend school without being in violation of the order.

The laws provide you the freedom from feeling threatened. Whether it be from a classmate, a stranger, or even a domestic partner, if you feel threatened, you should immediately contact a Southern California family lawyer to see if a restraining order might be an option for you.

The couple is saying all the right things, and every indication is that they pair will have an amicable divorce. The two A-listers have 3 children together, plus a fourth child belonging to Klum from a previous relationship. It seems likely that they pair will manage to come to some sort of child custody arrangement without the need for the courts to intervene.

In another high profile divorce, Laker’s superstar Kobe Bryant and his wife Vanessa are in the midst of a divorce. It was reported over the weekend that Vanessa will get all three of the couple’s Huntington Beach mansions in the divorce. Vanessa Bryant is also expected to get nearly $75 million in the divorce settlement as the couple didn’t have a prenuptial agreement, and California is a no fault state, so all marital assets are divided 50/50.

Also, because Kobe Bryant was the sole bread winner in the family, it is likely that Vanessa will be entitled to significant spousal support as well.

The Bryant’s were high school sweethearts, and Vanessa stuck by Kobe through a sexual assault scandal involving the basketball all-star back in 2003. The couple had been married just over 2 years at that point. Vanessa Bryan cited “irreconcilable differences” in the divorce papers she filed.

Today, one of the young women featured on the MTV program was making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Last night, Jenelle Evans, was arrested for violating a domestic violence protective order. This is the second time Evans has been arrested in the past 6 days, and has been charged for various offenses no fewer than five times since August, including various drug possession charges and testing positive for marijuna.

Should the father of her child choose to seek custody of her baby, all of these arrests can be used against her in court. And if the State decides that both parents are a detriment to the health and safety of the child, a dependency hearing can be set and the child can be placed in foster care.

The main question in any child dependency case or child custody case is where was the child during the various criminal offenses? If the child was present while illegal activity was taking place, that will be severely detrimental to the parent’s case. While being found guilty of any illegal activity is a negative in a custody or dependency hearing, if the activity occurs away from the child, it carries less weight.

MTV’s reality show has been a lightning rod for controversy, as some critics say it glorifies teen pregnancy. Producers of the show say it has the opposite effect, showing the trials and tribulations of teen motherhood.

In addition, even if your spouse is cheating on you it normally will not have any impact on “child custody issues” in your divorce. What this means is that the court looks at what is in the “best interest” of your children in deciding how much time your kids should live with each parent. Unless you can prove that your spouse had sex with another person “in front of the children”, the fact that he or she cheated on you will not gain you an advantage when it comes to child custody.

Finally, there is no “financial penalty” if one spouse cheats on the other. This means the family law court will not award either spouse any additional money during the divorce case because one spouse was unfaithful to the other.

It is very interesting that in some states a person can go to jail for cheating on their spouse, but in California there is no legal penalty for doing so.

We would like to know how you feel about this interesting legal issue.

When a there is a court order in place, the parties must adhere to the order or face potential repercussions from the court. A court order can either be entered based on an agreement by the parties, or a ruling of the court after a hearing.

Parties may also agree among themselves, without a court order, on how they will have custody of their children. When there is not a court order in place as to custody, the parties typically will not be able to enforce the agreement if one party fails to adhere to it. Regardless of whether an agreement on child custody, without a court order is oral or written, the other party will not be required to follow it.

Quality time with children is invaluable to most parents. Perhaps this is why child custody and visitation issues are often the most contentious when parties separate or divorce. Having a court order in place, is the best way to ensure that a parent’s custody and visitation rights are protected.

Speaking with an experienced, knowledgable family law attorney is the best to way to determine what options are available to protect your rights.

In order for this to happen, you must show the court that you exhausted every avenue possible while attempting to contact your spouse and serve the documents. If the court is satisfied that you made every effort to contact your spouse, you can file an Ex parte application for publication of summons. In short, you can publish your intention to divorce your spouse in a named California newspaper, or an out of state newspaper if your spouse lives out of state.

Once this has been done to the satisfaction of the court, your divorce can move forward without your spouse.

While the process explained here seems straightforward, it is a tricky process to satisfy the courts that you made every possible effort to locate your spouse before moving forward with your divorce. That is why it is crucial to hire an experienced family law attorney, like the ones at Wallin and Klarich, that can assist you with this process, and save you a lot of time, grief and money.

Going through a divorce is stressful enough. And if you want the best possible results, it shouldn’t be something you attempt to handle on your own.

Social workers took the baby from the parents after the emergency room doctor claimed that the injury that the baby suffered was in his opinion “non accidental”.

The parents of the child were not at home. The parents of the child could not have injured the child. The child dependency court held a trial and concluded that because the parents “could not be 100% ruled out” as a possible “suspect” that meant that the child became a “ward of the county” and the parents lost legal custody of their child.

If your child is injured and a doctor at the emergency room believes that it is “likely” that the injury was not accidental then the “burden” shifts to you as parents to prove in court that there is a “non-intentional” way that your child was injured. This is true even if you left the child with the grandparents or another babysitter.

This nightmare is repeated over and over again every night in California. Parents determine that their young child is injured. They seek immediate medical care. Then within minutes the parents “become suspects” as social workers repeatedly question the parents in an attempt to obtain some sort of “admission or confession” that they intentionally injured their child. This often leads to social workers putting a “hold” on the baby at the hospital and restricting the parents access to their own child.

At Wallin and Klarich we have been helping parents who have had their children taken from them by social workers fight to win them back. Nothing is more important to parents than their children. Yet social workers often treat loving parents like criminals and the trauma that is caused to the family is overwhelming. If you would like to discuss your case with our family law attorneys feel free to call us toll free at 877-466-5245 and we will be there when you call.

The court ended up making an order that the children were not to be in the presence of Jerry Sandusky without supervision and also ordered that overnight visits be prohibited in the Sandusky home due to Sandusky dealing with these pending molestation allegations.

A parent should always seek to ensure that their children’s safety and well being remain a priority. Whether the other parent is dealing with issues with allegations of molestation as in the Sandusky case, or one parent accuses the other of excessive discipline or alleges continual drug use or the other parent has neglected the child in some way or any risk concerning behavior of one parent, supervised visitations may be appropriate in these circumstances.

In any instance where one parent has a concern of the parenting ability of the other parent, or that issues have arisen to raise concern that the other parent cannot effectively parent a minor child, a parent has the option of seeking an initial ex parte motion for supervised visitation or an ex parte motion for modification of an existing order for supervised visitations.

Supervision can be done by a trusted family member or can be done professionally as ordered by the court.

The experienced and skilled Southern California family law attorneys at Wallin & Klarich Law firm have been helping divorcing parents for over 30 years. If you need representation for divorce or child custody issues related to divorce or a paternity action, call our firm immediately for a consultation.

Custody evaluations will be costly and will take time to complete which may be as long as 3 months minimum to complete on a full custody evaluation. Both parties generally share the burden of the costs associated with these evaluations and the court generally orders the costs paid equally initially subject to re-allocation at a later date and the disparities in the parties’ incomes will be factored by the court.

Parents should be prepared to handle themselves in these types of evaluations to obtain the best possible outcome and result when all is said and done on these custody evaluations.
The court typically has a list of evaluators to select from or the parties and their attorneys can agree to choose an evaluator for the process. Additionally, if there has been a history of domestic violence in the relationship or a protective order is in place, the evaluator must meet with the parties separately and at separate times.

Once the evaluation is complete, a hearing will be held as to the recommendations made by the evaluator subject to cross examination by either party. It is important for a party to be well prepared for these evaluations to achieve the best result and a favorable recommendation.

It is important to contact the experienced Family Law Attorneys at Wallin & Klarich to represent you and prepare for these types of proceedings if ordered. At Wallin and Klarich, our Family Law attorneys have successfully represented many clients in this situation. Our knowledgeable Family Law attorneys will work to ensure that your case is done properly and professionally and seek the best outcome on your behalf. Contact us as soon as possible via phone at 1-888-280-6839 or visit our website at www.wkfamilylaw.com