Los Angeles Family Lawyer Blog

Litigation is simply not good for the majority of divorcing couples, and it is cost prohibitive for most. Divorce lawyers should strive to work together until negotiations either result in an agreement or break down and require litigation. Those divorce lawyers who enter a case with all guns blazing are the ones who make the process worse for the family, spend all the money, and alienate everyone--including the general public. Pure collaboration that prohibits any form of litigation is probably not as effective as having the ability to enforce discovery or good behavior through litigation, and it becomes very expensive if lawyers have to be changed out in order to go into litigation. The family doesn't necessarily "end" at divorce; it is important to do what is fair and to maintain some relationships for the sake of the children--"winning" and "losing" are terms that don't always apply to divorce law.
I always try to keep litigation costs down as much as possible and negotiate with the opposing party and attorney.

-RoseAnn Frazee

The quick answer: It depends on the case. In Los Angeles Superior Court, 90121 Family law cases were filed from January-December 2008 according to the Monthly Filings and Dispositions Report prepared by the Los Angeles Superior Court Statistics Section. There are not enough family law attorneys to handle all of those cases. In addition, each case is different: (1) some parties have been married a few years when others have been married for years and years; (2) some parties have children whereas other parties never had children; (3) both parties worked in some cases but the other spouse did not work and took care of the children instead; (4) some parties have obtained assets during the marriage; others do not have very many assets; and the list goes on. Adult citizens have each their own set of problems, cultures and characteristics.

As a result, the Los Angeles Superior Court and published books provide limited self-help services for those who cannot afford an attorney or who are educated enough to understand the forms and process, can read and speak English well and can represent themselves and do not have spousal or children support or asset issues. Even then, such self-help can be fraught with danger, and the parties should be cautious.

However, many issues arise where an attorney is essential. Attorneys have many skills not available to the lay person. All family law attorneys are skilled in evidence presentation. It is important that evidence may be considered by the judge; otherwise, the evidence never gets before a judge. Family law attorneys have (1) experience with many different cases not just your one case, (2) sometimes experience before a certain judge, (3) many volumes of case law, treatises and practice guides, (4) usually have an objective view of your case rather than the emotional cloud of a party, and many more skills that a lay person cannot compete with such skills.

In addition, lay persons can be confronted with unanticipated problems and complications that a skilled attorney will see before such an event happens and can recommend remedial measures before the occurrence. Unfortunately, we have seen too many clients get harmed by unanticipated complications in which the harm has already happened, and it is oftentimes impossible or impractical for an attorney to rescue the party after the fact. Most, if not all, complicated divorces should be handled by attorneys to minimize damages to a party in this life-altering process of divorce. Give us a call for a free consultation at frazeelaron.com for more information.

RoseAnn Frazee
Pasadena Family Law Attorney

Given the economic struggles that have overtaken Los Angeles and the rest of California, many parents are running into Court to reduce Child Support payments based on a lowering of income without an Attorney. Others are claiming they cannot work, so they have no income at all. While this can be a painful reality, the Court will not always play along with the concept of being unemployed, so Child Support cannot be paid, expecially if your ex-Spouse is being represented. Going it alone in Court can be a costly mistake, and making a statement in Court is often not the same as proving it so.

Imputed Income is the concept that if a person has the ability and opportunity to work, then they should be held to that standard. The idea is that it is not in the child's best interest to have a parent who stops working or fails to really seek a job in order to avoid paying Child Support to their ex-Spouse. While being involuntarily unemployed may be a more common scenario today, many Judges will often still hold someone to what they ought to be earning. Here are some factors to think about:

1. Has the spouse previously earned an income consistently, showing recent opportunity to work?
2. Does the education level of the spouse show an ability to work in a given field?
3. Has the spouse previously quit or were they laid off? This goes to the opportunity and ability arguments.
4. How affected by the economic downturn is the field or occupation that the spouse was working in?

For example, the Real Estate or Banking Industry may be more susceptible to the downturn than Healthcare or Education.

The basic common sense rule is that you can lead a person to a job opportunity, but you can't make them actually apply for the job. As a result, imputed income is just one way of combatting efforts to shirk responsibility of paying for one's Child Support.

A Los Angeles Family Law attorney can explore the area of Imputed Income if you feel that a spouse is not being held to their proper Child Support Obligation. If you are being forced into Court because your ex-spouse is claiming you should be working, a Family Law Attorney can help defend you if your unemployment is involuntary. Frazee/ Laron is a law firm that can help solve your family law problems and make sure your rights are being fairly represented.

Kirk Laron
Pasadena Family Law Attorney

While visitation necessarily turns upon the custodial parent's ability to make the child available for visitation, a custodial parent probably has sufficient control over a child of "tender years" to compel the child to visit with the other parent under the terms of the court order; and the custodial parent's failure to comply would thus be punishable by contempt.

Teenagers are a different breed. Although teenage children remain subject to their parents' control until age 18 or marriage, if a teenager refuses to visit with the noncustodial parent through no fault of the custodial parent, the noncustodial parent probably has no remedy. The California Court of Appeal held in 1987 that a mother of a 14-year old child could not be held in contempt because there was no showing that the mother had the ability to compel the child to visit.

Lesson learned. The noncustodial parent needs to make quality time with the teenager so that the teenager will want to visit with him/her. Sitting on the couch watching television and making out with a lover is not quality time with the teenager. Or having the teenager "hang out" with you and your friends and/or lover may not be enjoyable for the teenager. A child is visiting with YOU not your friends and needs your undivided attention during this visitation period no matter what age if you want to develop a parent-child bond and continuing relationship. Just because the noncustodial parent's child support will be reduced based upon the visitation time is no reason to force the teenager to visit; the teenager knows that reason. It is the noncustodial parent's duty to make the teenager want to visit and the custodial parent's duty to encourage the visitation. A family law attorney in Los Angeles can provide you the appropriate advice in when and how to go to Court effectively to modify child visitation and/ or child support.

-RoseAnn Frazee-
Pasadena Family Law Attorney

While visitation necessarily turns upon the custodial parent's ability to make the child available for visitation, a custodial parent probably has sufficient control over a child of "tender years" to compel the child to visit with the other parent under the terms of the court order; and the custodial parent's failure to comply would thus be punishable by contempt.

Teenagers are a different bred. Although teenage children remain subject to their parents' control until age 18 or marriage, if a teenager refuses to visit with the noncustodial parent through no fault of the custodial parent, the noncustodial parent probably has no remedy. The California Court of Appeal held in 1987 that a mother of a 14-year old child could not be held in contempt because there was no showing that the mother had the ability to compel the child to visit.

Lesson learned. The noncustodial parent needs to make quality time with the teenager so that the teenager will want to visit with him/her. Sitting on the couch watching television and making out with a lover is not quality time with the teenager. Or having the teenager "hang out" with you and your friends and/or lover may not be enjoyable for the teenager. A child is visiting with YOU not your friends and needs your undivided attention during this visitation period no matter what age if you want to develop a parent-child bond and continuing relationship. It is the noncustodial parent's duty to make the teenager want to visit and the custodial parent's duty to encourage the visitation.
-RoseAnn Frazee-

Many parents in Los Angeles think that they can simply make an agreement as to how much Child Support needs to be paid. While Spousal Support can often be decided by agreement amongst the parties, Child Support must be based on certain mandated factors that the Court must consider. Those factors are known as guideline support and are as follows:

• The income that both parents either earn or are able to earn.
• Actual time spent with each child
• How many children there are that qualify for support
• Tax filing status based on each parent's tax returns
• Health Insurance coverage
• Additional sources of money that help support the children
• Retirement Contributions that are mandated and not by choice
• Additional costs for the benefit of the child such as Daycare, Tutoring, etc.

Many times, parents think they can simply get an attorney to come into Court and make their own rationale for appropriate Child Support, but this is totally false. The Judical Officer must abide and consider these factors specifically or that Judicial Officer subjects themselves to an embarrassing appeal.

The real attorney's worth comes in making sure the Court is accurately and thoroughly informed about these factors, and is able to demonstrate why the current facts of the case no longer supports the Court's last Order due to a change in circumstances, law, or facts of the case. Contact a Family Law attorney in Los Angeles in order to get a straightforward, no nonsense consultation to see if your Child Support needs to be re-opened to your benefit.

Kirk Laron
Los Angeles Family Law Attorney

Child Support Arrearages in Los Angeles have a funny way of adding up. Many people think, why hurry into Court when they are just adding up anyway. Well, this is only partially true. If you know that circumstances have changed and that you are owed more Child Support, then you had better file right away, or you will not receive anything prior to the time of filing. Arrearages only accrue on existing court orders.

Here's an example: Spouse A commits Domestice Violence and has a Restraining Order put against them, taking away their Visitation rights. Spouse B knows that now the Child Support is going to increase for Spouse B because now they have 100% custody, instead of something less. The person often thinks, no big deal, surely the Court will enforce the proper child support against the Spouse A, who has the Restraining Order.

Until Spouse B files for the Change in Child Support they will receive no extra support, no matter that it was Spouse A that caused the problem. Unbelievably, the Court expects the affected Spouse to file the next day, or they will lose the Child Support that they should be due under the concept of fairness.

The Lesson is: Don't Sleep on Your Rights! The Court will be unmoved by the obvious injustice. If you know that you need to modify your Child Support, get a Family Law Attorney right away to file your case. Every day you wait is lost Support that could be going to your Child's needs.

Kirk Laron
Family Law Attorney

The California economic downturn has led many to speculate that people cannot afford to get a Divorce nowadays. While there is some evidence to suggest that this may be true, the incidents of Child Support Modification filings appear to be growing. Since Child Support is largely based on two factors: 1) Income and 2) time spent with Parent, the fact that many people in Los Angeles have either lost their jobs or are underemployed has led to a significant decrease in what people can afford to pay. As a result, people are now coming to Court to get much needed relief from Child Support payments that are based on incomes they are no longer earning.

Many times, there has been the feeling by one parent that the other parent is not working ON PURPOSE in order to not pay more Child Support. This led to the concept of Imputed Income, whereby many parents were held to the standard of what they should be making rather than what they were actually making. Nowadays, however, the common excuse of "I can't find a job!" has become far more believable. The trend of lowering Child Support Payments will likely continue in the same direction as the unemployment rate, which is 11.9% in California according to July 2009 statistics.

If you think your Child Support is no longer based on your actual earnings, you should consult a Los Angeles Family Law Attorney. Otherwise, you may soon be consulting a Los Angeles Bankruptcy Attorney instead!

Kirk Laron
Pasadena Attorney