Types of Cases That a California Family Law Office Takes
You shouldn’t see a personal injury attorney to defend you in a criminal case, and an intellectual property attorney can’t do much to help you with a traffic ticket. This is why you must seek an attorney working with the type of case you’re facing. What types of cases does a family law office in Chino & Corona; California take?
Pre-Marital Consultations
Do you want a prenuptial agreement? Do you want to plan your wedding date to minimize your tax liabilities or ensure that a financial windfall isn’t community property? Talk to a family law attorney.
What if you just live together? You should have a roommate agreement that specifies each side’s financial obligations. Don’t end up accidentally married under common law. And talk to an attorney to understand the benefits of a domestic partnership agreement versus a traditional marriage license.
Divorce
One of the most common reasons why someone would visit a Chino, California family law office is because they are in the process of ending their marriage. Note that a divorce is a process, not a one-time event. You may file for divorce once, but then you need to negotiate everything from child and pet custody to the division of property. You might need to change child visitation schedules or the amount you pay for child and spousal support.
Family law offices often see cases at the intersection of family and criminal law. For example, they may work to prosecute someone for domestic violence while helping the battered partner get a restraining order. Or they may seek to terminate the custody rights of a rapist so the child can be put up for adoption.
Children’s Rights
Family law offices see a wide range of cases related to children. A child filing for emancipation is rare, but custody disputes over children are quite common. California law allows the courts to take a child’s desires into account at age 12 while tending to defer to the minor’s wishes by age 14. Furthermore, custody doesn’t have to go to a parent. The courts allow for the possibility that a child is sent to live with a grandparent or other relative instead of warring parents.
While adoption of newborns is not as common, adoption rates remain high. The number of children being adopted from foster care into forever families is rising. And there are cases where a biological parent gives up their rights to a child so that the child can be adopted by a legal step-parent.
Long-Term Planning
Family law attorneys often see clients trying to plan for the future. They can create basic wills, medical power of attorney documents, financial power of attorney documents and basic trusts. They can give you advice on how to set up guardianship for your children if you’re going to be away for a while or take care of a special needs adult when you cannot do so. You can receive a comprehensive estate plan so that your wishes are carried out whether you’re disabled by dementia or deceased. The only thing a family law attorney can’t do is your taxes. However, they may be able to recommend a financial planner or tax adviser.
It is common for family lawyers to handle estates, wills and settlements. Perhaps they’re managing the money on behalf of a minor who has inherited money from deceased relatives. Or they’re overseeing the dispersal of money to young adults as they reach majority age.
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3 Things You Didn’t Know You Needed To Consider In Divorce
There are a number of things people know will need to be addressed when going through a divorce. The division of property and custody of children are two of the biggest ones. And there is endless room to debate little things like who gets the dog and the china. Here are 3 things you didn’t know you needed to consider in divorce.
Tax Deductions and Tax Breaks
If you have children, there is room to argue about who will get to claim the children are a tax deduction. If you claim the children, you can file under the more advantageous head of household category instead of filing as a single individual. You might have made this decision as part of your divorce, but circumstances may bring you back to the negotiating table. For example, the tax laws changed in 2019 to reduce the tax benefit someone receives for being generous with alimony. A potential solution is giving the higher income former spouse the tax deduction for a given year. You can discuss who will get the mortgage tax deduction for a given year, especially the year after the divorce is finalized. A Corona, California divorce attorney can help you modify your divorce agreement to reflect changing tax law.
How to Break a Tie
If you go in for arbitration, you may use the arbiter as a tie breaker. However, there may be cases where you can’t agree when managing life after the divorce. Who pays for your child’s health insurance next year? Who gets the tax deduction for the mortgage or childcare? You can try to spell out a plan with alternating years. Or you could build an arbitration method into the divorce agreement. This comes in handy when there are disputes over who gets the kids for Christmas. For example, you could set an age at which the child can decide whether or not to spend the fifth weekend with the non-custodial parent. Or you could create a mechanism for deciding which activities the child can join and who pays for what. Maybe a family friend issues the deciding vote. Or you go back to the arbiter to resolve things instead of going to court.
Debts Versus Assets
In general, you do not want to be legally liable for debts against an asset you do not own. This is why you should seek ownership of the car if you’re going to be liable for the car note. It can be difficult to negotiate the sale of a family home, though that does eliminate the mortgage debt against it. If you’re going through a divorce, discuss how you’ll divide the home equity or limit the liability of the partner no longer living in the property.
Do not give up your rights to the house via a quit claim deed while your name is still on the mortgage. Creditors can come after you if your ex stops paying the house payment. And while you can ask them to refinance the mortgage as part of the divorce, they don’t have to and may not be able to do so.
Work with your ex to settle as many debts as possible as part of the divorce so that you don’t have to fight if and when someone misses a payment. And don’t resort to a “silver bullet strategy”, lying about spousal or child abuse to kick out your soon-to-be ex from the house so you don’t have to move out. The allegations of spousal abuse may stop evictions and give you complete custody of the children for a while, but the courts will punish you once they learn that you lied.
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Factors That Could Prevent You from Receiving Child Custody
We can talk about the factors that courts will use to determine whether you should get part or whole custody of your children. But what factors could prevent you from getting custody of your children in the first place?
Unstable Living Arrangements
Divorce destroys the child’s concept of house and home. Moving to a new apartment or a new city may be inevitable. However, the courts rarely give someone primary custody if you’re moving every week or month, trying to find a place you can afford. This is why it is better to move in with family or friends who will let you stay for an extended period of time.
This can also mean that being threatened with eviction or foreclosure can count against you in child custody disputes. In fact, this sometimes results in people falsely alleging domestic violence in order to stay where they are for a while longer.
Domestic Violence Allegations
Domestic violence is abhorrent. The system has become much more aggressive in pursuing allegations of domestic violence. It also offers far more support for people who allege domestic violence. For example, the definition of domestic violence has expanded to include emotional abuse as well as physical abuse. Unfortunately, the incentives to lie or exaggerate incidents have also increased. It lets you kick your ex out of the home without the ability to visit the kids. It can stall foreclosure or evictions. It gives you an immediate right to legal aid when filing for divorce and full child custody, and it biases the court against your ex. The domestic violence system doesn’t use the same guilty beyond a reasonable doubt standard it would if charged with murder or rape. Instead, it uses a lower “preponderance of the evidence” standard. A great story and a few actual incidents misrepresented could cost you custody of your children, blight your reputation and result in increased financial obligations. This is why you must work with a good Corona, California family law attorney when such allegations or accusations are made.
Neglect / Abuse
If you’ve ever been found guilty of child abuse or child neglect, the courts are unlikely to give you custody of your children. If you let your current boyfriend or girlfriend abuse or neglect the children, they may not allow you to have custody unless that person is gone. If your addiction has ever resulted in neglect of the children, you’ll lose custody.
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How does the state of California determine how much child support must be paid? While this is on a case by case basis, there are a number of factors that affect every child support order.
Payments For Child Support In CA
California uses a number of factors when determining child support payments. It includes the parents’ income, the amount of support each parent can provide and the cost of raising each child. While the courts will try to set child support levels at what would maintain a similar standard of living for the child, child support orders can be amended to reflect one’s lower income. Note that these orders are never retroactive, so you must file to change your child support order as soon as you suffer a reduction in income.
Income Sources Used To Determine CSO (Child Support Obligations)
Welfare payments and Social Security income are not included in child support calculations. Wages earned are included in child support calculations. However, property and other assets can be included, as well. For example, you may be ordered to pay child support if you’ve quit your job but still have savings and investments from which child support could be paid.
Does Gender Affect The Child Support Award?
While most of those parents paying child support are men, a mother could be ordered to pay child support, as well. This is especially true if the father has equal or primary custody and the mother has the higher income. The cost of child care is also taken into account when determining child support levels. The state considers it preferable to have the child in paid private care than subsidized childcare, and it will do everything it can to prevent a single parent from relying on welfare.
How Are Tax Deductions Factored Into Child Support Calculations
The amount of child support is supposed to be awarded based off net income. This means that available deductions like unions dues, health insurance and mortgage interest can be factored into the equation. Consult with a family law attorney if you’re also paying alimony. A tax law change that went into effect in 2018 eliminated the tax deduction for alimony while eliminating the requirement for recipients to include them in taxable income.
Talk to an attorney if you’re fighting over who will claim the child as a dependent, since it is illegal for both of you to claim the child for the child tax credit or to get the head of household filing status in the same year. If you lose your health insurance coverage, consult with an attorney so that your child support order can be properly amended.
State Deviations From Child Support Guidelines
Most child support orders are based on the formula C = I (HN – (H%)(DN)). C is the child support amount. HN is the net monthly disposable income for the higher earning parent. I is the total income of both parents. H% is how much time the higher earning parent spends with the child. DN is the net monthly disposable income of both parents. The state will stick to this equation when determining child support unless it has good reason not to.
Allegations of someone hiding assets or cutting hours worked to reduce child support is one. Demonstrated need for additional resources, such as when you have a special needs child, is another. You could choose to offer additional resources, too, such as paying for private schooling for your children.
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Court-appointed Mediator To Interview My Child
It’s not a must for children to be interviewed in child custody mediation in California. However, the law has provisions allowing mediators or counselors (child custody-recommending counselors or CCRC) to interview children during unique circumstances.
Family Code 3180 permits mediators to interview children when they see it fit to do so. In all custody cases, mediators and CCRC counselors have the mandate of recommending to courts handling cases when/if a custody investigation is necessary.
In case your child is scheduled for an interview, don’t discuss the case. Instead, use general terms to refer to where they’ll be going and who they’ll be speaking to.
Do Lawyers Participate In Mediation Processes?
Different counties in California differ in regard to attorney participation in mediation processes. In most counties, attorneys don’t attend mediation sessions. While mediators have the power (statutory authority) to exclude lawyers from participating in sessions, either party is free to seek legal advice.
How Much Time Do I Have To Review The Recommended Parenting Plan?
The law gives parents enough time to review recommended parenting plans that have been prepared by court-appointed mediators and handed over to family court judges for approval. As per Family Code 3183, Mediators are supposed to provide both parties and their lawyers with the recommendations made in writing before the hearing.
You have until the hearing to review everything. If you aren’t satisfied, or your lawyer recommends some changes, you can request the court to continue your hearing. An oral testimony is needed at request when child custody is scheduled for a hearing.
The Mediator Has Recommended Something I don’t like. What do I do?
If the court-appointed mediator gives a recommendation you don’t agree with partially or entirely, you have a right to challenge such recommendations.
You can challenge recommendations by demanding a cross-examination as per Family Code 217. You can also file a declaration with the court or similar affidavit, highlighting your objections with the recommendations.
Parties can also conduct discovery via their attorneys to challenge the accuracy of representations by the other parent. Lastly, you can also present your argument to the family court commissioner or judge highlighting your objections about the report.
Can I and/or the Other Parent Elect To Get A Private Mediator?
Yes. It’s possible to get a private mediator to deal with your child custody dispute as opposed to allowing the court to appoint one. However, this will come with additional costs varying based on acrimony between parties, case complexity, and time spent by a mediator on the case. Charges range from $2,000 to $4,000. However, total costs can fall outside these limits.
A formal stipulation is necessary when appointing the mediator. The private mediator also needs to be approved by the judge handling the case. The formal stipulation should be drafted carefully, preferably with the help of a mediation attorney.
While there are many other FAQs about custody mediation in California, the above questions and answers provide essential basics, every parent should know about custody mediation processes.
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Fathers’ Rights in California: Who Qualifies as a Father in California?
For a father to exercise their rights, they must qualify as a legal parent. In California, a father need not be the biological father to exercise fathers’ rights.
There are several types of legal parents in California, as per dependency court. Besides biological mothers, individuals who qualify as parents/fathers are divided into three main groups mainly;
Biological father
A person qualifies as a biological father if there is a DNA test showing that person is the biological parent or there is a paternity judgment indicating the same. Biological fathers have a right to show they are presumed fathers. They also have the rights to notice of a dependency hearing. Biological fathers can get back their children into their care if the court believes this would be best for the children. Relatives of biological fathers also enjoy special consideration when social services are deciding where your child/children should live. Biological fathers have the most fathers’ rights.
Presumed father
A presumed father or parent is one whose name appears on their child’s birth certificate. A person can also qualify as a presumed father in court if there is a family court order existing as proof of a parental relationship or parentage. A person who has raised a child or children as their own also qualifies as a presumed father with certain rights such as the right to reunification or getting your child/children back under your care. You also get visitation and custody rights.
Relatives of presumable fathers also enjoy special consideration when social services is deciding where your children should live. However, the presumable parent title doesn’t apply to men only. Women who have raised a child / children together with their partners can be deemed as presumed parents.
Alleged father
An alleged father is a parent who has told social services that he is the father. Mothers can also qualify as alleged parents. The tag alleged is used to refer to a parent waiting to be confirmed as a biological or presumed parent. Individuals who show up in hearings and allege to be parents of a child are considered alleged until proven otherwise.
An alleged father has a few father rights in a dependency case i.e., the right to be notified of a dependency hearing. Alleged fathers also have a right to prove they are presumed parents or biological parents. However, they don’t enjoy rights such as the right to reunification or custody, as is the case with biological and presumed parents. What’s more, relatives of alleged fathers don’t enjoy special consideration when there are special considerations for placing children.
In a nutshell, fathers’ rights are enjoyed by those who qualify to be called fathers in California. Given the process of earning a father’s rights can be complicated, it’s important to seek the services of a seasoned father’s rights lawyer to advise you accordingly. The type of father you qualify as will dictate your rights to custody and other important matters. The process should be handled by a legal professional.
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Factors That Determine Spousal Support Levels In California
The law should be fair. That means that it needs to take circumstances into account when determining how much someone should be awarded, whether they’re in need of support when their marriage falls apart or injured in an accident. But it is easy for someone to be given too much or too little based on their ability to tell their story. California’s family code attempts to remove the drama by using fourteen factors used to determine the amount of spousal support if any to be given.
The Assets and Income of the Supporting Spouse
The higher earning or wealthier spouse is called the supporting spouse. The level of support they will be ordered to pay is based in large part on their income. And most spousal support modification requests are driven by changes or suspected changes in someone’s income or net worth.
Earning Capacity
Spousal support is based in part on what each party is earning. However, the more important factor is how much one could be earning. For example, a stay-at-home partner’s potential income is what they could earn given their educational level. And someone working part-time may be required to work full-time, though they can ask for assistance with childcare to make that possible.
The Assets and Obligations of Each Party
What assets do you hold in separate property? Alimony requests will probably be denied if you have enough money in savings or investments to live off of. However, the request for support will compare what someone owns to what they owe. Note that you can request a modification of the spousal support order if your living expenses or income level change significantly (more than 20%).
How Much the Supported Spouse Contributed to the Other’s Accomplishments
How much did the lower earning spouse contribute to the education or career of the other? A partner who worked for years while the other went to law school or worked for below market wages building up the family business can ask for more support than someone who had their own career.
The Duration of the Marriage
In most cases, you won’t get spousal support unless you were married for at least ten years. Note that this is independent of child support. That can be requested whether or not you’re married and no matter how long you were married for.
The Age and Health of Both Parties
Disabled individuals and those who are too old to go back to work are much more likely to receive spousal support than an able-bodied adult. You can ask for a modification of the support order if your health and/or ability to earn an income has been adversely affected.
Any History of Domestic Violence
If there is evidence of domestic violence, the victim is much more likely to receive alimony and to receive it for the maximum time allowed by law. Evidence of domestic violence can also be used to prevent unsupervised visitation with the children.
Any Hardships Either Party Is Facing
Someone may be able to ask for additional support while they’re recovering from back surgery or cancer treatment, though the support will end once they are back on their feet. A parent taking care of a disabled child can fall into this category, too.
Other Just and Equitable Factors
This is a catch-all provision that allows the court to consider other factors when determining the right level of spousal support.
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Rules on Reimbursement in Alimony Cases
California is a community property state. The money and property acquired during the marriage is considered jointly held. So are the debts. Money and debts acquired before the marriage are the responsibility of the person who acquired them. However, the lines between joint and separate are easily blurred. This is where reimbursement requests can affect your divorce case.
“I Gave Up Everything for You”
The courts will generally give a stay-at-home parent much more alimony than someone who works part or full time. It is harder for them to rejoin the work force and earn a full salary. On the other hand, the courts will consider cases where one spouse dropped out of school or didn’t get a higher degree to support the partner who completed their own education. For example, he worked overtime so she could get her master’s degree or law degree, and now she’s the high-income earner. The value of the time and effort invested is hard to quantify, but someone can ask for more alimony under California law to offset that sacrifice. And it can take the form of requests for support while themselves return to school.
“I Paid Off Your Debts”
Debts acquired before marriage are the responsibility of that person. Yet it is advisable for couples to combine their finances when they get married. And debt is a waste of money. This is why many couples choose to pay off their debts when they get married. If one partner uses their savings to pay off the debts of the other, they have used personal property to benefit the other partner. This is something you can negotiate during a divorce settlement. If significant community property was used to pay off personal debts, you can argue that it should offset alimony or become assets that you should get back. A classic example is when one partner owns the house, and then both their salaries go toward paying off the house. You can argue that you don’t have to pay more in alimony, because you helped pay off the home loan.
It is easier to make this case when money spent on the asset caused its value to increase or the property still exists. You can stake a claim on the equity in a house and ask for it to be sold if nothing else. It isn’t possible to do this when you paid off the old car, they sold five years ago.
“I Don’t Want to Be Responsible for Your Debts”
Divorce involves separating debts and assets. In general, the divorce should make the same person responsible for the debt as the one holding the asset. Lingering debts create all kinds of problems. You don’t want to have to pay a car payment for a vehicle your ex is driving. Many end up obligated to pay a house payment for a house they aren’t living in. And creditors don’t care that you’re divorced. You are jointly liable for the debt, assuming it was taken out during the marriage.
One solution is to use personal property to pay off debts. You can ask for credits for this during the divorce. Paying off loans can reduce future alimony requests, too, because the person cannot include those debts among the bills they have to pay. Note that California law doesn’t grant Epstein credits if the paying spouse was using the underlying asset. This means that you don’t get credit if you pay off the car loan if you’re the one driving the car.
There is a whole other problem related to people who misspend money during the divorce. The partner who racks up credit card debt just before filing could be charged with misappropriation of community funds. Talk to a Corona, California divorce attorney to understand your options, so that you don’t end up liable for someone else’s deliberate mismanagement of money.
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How the System Protects Your Visitation Rights
During a divorce or after the birth of a child out of wedlock, the courts will review parents’ budgets and set an appropriate level of child support. Most of us are familiar with the various enforcement mechanisms if you don’t make your child support payments. The courts will also approve a custody agreement. How does the state protect your visitation rights and enforce child custody agreements?
Limiting Their Ability to Move
Increased travel time is an impediment to a natural relationship. That is why states like California limit parents’ ability to move “away”. That is defined by moving more than fifty miles away. California requires the relocating parent to get court approval to move with the child, either within or outside of California, unless both parents agree to the move. Note that the custody agreement can be changed to offset this such as giving the parent who is farther away more large blocks of time like long weekends and more time in the summer rather than expecting them to visit for two hours on Wednesday night. Be sure that your visitation schedule gives you adequate time with your kids after travel is taken into account. And make sure that your child support agreement is updated so you’re compensated for the travel costs their move is leaving you with.
Contempt of Court Orders
Parents can file for contempt if the other parent is disregarding the visitation schedule or continually interfering in visitation. The courts rarely send a parent to prison for contempt of court due to violations of a custody agreement, whereas they often send people to contempt of court for failing to pay child support. The offending parent is more likely to be given a fine for their misbehavior.
Changes of Custody
There is another reason why parents who interfere in custody or alienate the children rarely go to prison relative to those who fail to pay alimony or child support. And that is the fact that the courts can punish the offending parent by changing the custody agreement. If the custodial parent has not been sending the child to visit the non-custodial parent or undermined their time together by scheduling conflicts or manipulating the child, the courts can respond by giving custody to the other parent. This could be done immediately by awarding them temporary custody and then become a permanent custody arrangement. The other parent retains visitation rights but now visits the child every weekend instead of having them nearly every day.
Punishing Kidnapping
The reported numbers of child kidnappings are artificially inflated, because it includes every case where a parent picks up the child without the other knowing it, resulting in a call to the police. It also includes malicious reporting, such as when the father is late returning with the child and the mother calls the police to report a kidnapping. An analysis of National Surveys of Children’s Exposure to Violence data found that four percent of children in the data sample had experienced family abduction or kidnapping, when you include cases like these. And roughly ninety percent of child kidnappings or abductions are parents, though this metric can include parents taking children from grandparents or foster parents who have temporary custody. Mothers and other female relatives account for sixty percent of kidnappings. This means that the odds are greater than fifty-fifty that the Amber Alert you heard involved a non-custodial parent taking the child without permission and almost certainly not a stranger.
California can charge parents with kidnapping under California Penal Code Section 278. California’s statute includes any person without legal custody who maliciously takes or hides the child with the intent to keep the child from their legal guardian. By this definition, a parent who violates the custody plan could in theory be charged with parental kidnapping even if they have joint custody.
However, a key requirement of this is having the goal of preventing the child from being reunited with the parent(s). This is why being late returning from visitation is not parental kidnapping, though a parent or other relative may report them due to these fears or to hurt the other parent. The law is intended to punish people who flee and try to go into hiding to keep a child away from the legal guardian and/or custodial parent. For example, you could have a non-custodial parent who tries to leave the country with the child prosecuted for parental kidnapping. But being unable to return for several days from a family vacation because of a hurricane won’t result in charges, because you weren’t intending to keep the child away.
Moving to another state and not providing contact information or planning visitation can lead to these charges, as well. After all, that is done with the clear intent of interfering in the other parent’s visitation rights. But the other party must have visitation rights in order for the act to be a crime. The mother who suffered domestic violence may be able to terminate the rights of the violent father, and a rapist father rarely has legal rights to the child. In this case, keeping the family’s address secret and refusing to meet with the abuser is not considered a violation of California Penal Code Section 278.5.
On the other hand, the courts recognize that you may grab the child and flee when you’re afraid for your safety of that of the child. That is why you could in theory flee with the child and not be violating the law. Over, the law requires that you report taking the child with you to the District Attorney’s office, file for custody in a manner consistent with the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, and then keep the attorney’s office up to date about the child’s situation. You will be required to prove you have reasonable belief that the other parent is likely to inflect immediate bodily injury or emotional harm to the child.
What happens if you don’t meet these standards? Child abduction is a misdemeanor. The punishments include a fine of up to a thousand dollars and up to a year in jail. If convicted of kidnapping, the punishments could include a fine of up to ten thousand dollars and up to eight years in prison.
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How a Premarital Agreement Affects Your Divorce
Premarital agreements are useful in many respects. They force a future couple to plan their life together including career and lifestyle expectations. It forces them to be honest about their financial situation. (The prenup isn’t valid if you don’t engage in full financial disclosure.) Yet the very reason you sign a prenup is how it affects your divorce, if the marriage ends.
Alimony/Spousal Support
California will not enforce any clauses in a prenup related to child custody or child support. It will generally enforce provisions related to spousal support assuming the terms in the prenup are considered fair. On the other hand, the spouse can opt out of their right to receive alimony. The caveat to this is that they must understand the ramifications of this. If they didn’t have independent legal counsel or were otherwise pressured to sign the prenup, the document will be tossed out by the courts.
You can use a prenup to promise to pay things not covered by child support. For example, child support generally ends when your children are legal adults. You can promise to pay for college tuition in a prenup, whereas the family courts will not force parents to pay for the higher education costs of adult children. You can promise to pass certain property on to your future children in a prenup, but that statement is meaningless unless you have a trust or will that does so upon your death. Prenups are more useful for protecting the inheritance rights of children outside of the current marriage, since the courts may give more to your second spouse and less to your kids than you would like if you die.
In general, you can promise to pay more in alimony or support than the courts would order on their own. You can promise to pay more in child support than the courts would order, but those provisions will generally be ignored. You can incentivize certain behavior such as promising a larger amount of alimony if your ex continues to be a stay at home parent or given them more property during the divorce if they stay home with the kids while you’re married. You cannot structure the settlement in any way that the courts will consider to be incentivizing divorce.
Property Division
California law states that a prenuptial agreement be roughly fair. This is why they can give up their claim to your home and any equity in it or a stake in your business, but you can’t let that become grossly unfair. For example, you can’t ask them to give up all rights to what may become a multinational company. Your prenup won’t stand if you didn’t disclose your stock options, stock portfolio or real estate portfolio even those these assets are separate property.
What you can do in a prenup is determine how the property will be divided. You can promise that they can keep the home they inherited from their deceased partner or the business they’ve built from the ground up. You can also declare any inherited property that each partner may receive during the marriage to be separate and not community property. Talk to a good attorney, because you may lose the protection the prenup provides if you mingle funds. For example, the money may need to go to a separate account in order to remain separate if you divorce. If you inherit a car, house or land, adding the other person to the title might make them a co-owner regardless of what the prenup says.
Reimbursement
We’ve already outlined how prenups can protect you if you have significant assets. You can use a prenup to protect your rights to personal property that you put into the marriage. For example, many newlyweds have college loans or other debt. One partner might use their personal property to pay down or pay off the debt of the other partner. Or a higher earning partner might cash flow the other person’s return to school. A prenup could require the other partner to reimburse the other for the money they used to pay off the other’s debt or their education. This prevents the utterly unfair situation of one partner working to support the other’s living expenses and education and then they walk away with an advanced degree, higher income and no debt along with half the marital assets.
What Premarital Agreements Cannot Do
You cannot dictate how your spouse will live their life via a prenup. You can’t dictate how they dress, how they’ll look, what they’ll eat, or how they’ll behave. You can incentivize some things within reason such as giving them a larger settlement if they remain married longer or stay home with the kids. You cannot order them to convert to a religion or raise the kids in a given faith after the divorce. The latter issue is hashed out in divorce court via a parenting plan, and both parents have an equal say in how the kids are raised. You cannot use a prenup to punish them if they don’t do what you want like docking their alimony or giving them less money because they didn’t live the way you wanted. There is a legal gray area regarding prenups making divorces due to adultery punishable in some way, essentially getting around California’s no-fault divorce laws.
You cannot use a prenup to force someone to do anything after the marriage. You can’t make them agree to sign over property or give up rights in a post-nuptial agreement in a prenup. For example, a prenup cannot be used to waive one’s rights to an ERISA retirement account. That can only be done by a legal spouse. And your legal spouse doesn’t have to sign away their rights.
And you can’t force them to do anything after the divorce like forbid them from dating or remarrying. Note that you do have a say in where they live if it affects your access to the kids or if their lifestyle actually harms the children. This is why you can refuse to let children visit a parent staying in a homeless shelter or living with an addict but cannot refuse supervised visitation or a meeting at a safe, neutral location.
Prenup Lawyer – Protecting Your Assets Before Marriage
The City Of Chino, CA
Chino is a city that is located in the middle of the ever popular and beloved Orange county, in the South-West of California. Its name is a nod to its Spanish heritage and history, as it was formed as part of the land grant forming Rancho Santa Ana del Chino. The Latin heritage has never been lost from this sunny paradise, and neither has the agricultural emphasis. Although the town has been recently urbanised, it is still proud of its rich agrarian heritage.
The area around Chino has specialised in dairy production and the cultivation of orchards. This has helped deliver the famed oranges of Orange county. It is located on a rich alluvial floodplain which has helped account for the strong crop yields and rich production of the area. The highly efficient local dairy farms helped make it the largest milk producer in the country, by the mid-20th century. This was helped by an influx of efficient and innovative immigrants who helped transform the industry.
Nowadays agriculture remains very important, but so too are more modern industries such as financial services and technology. These now act as some of the largest employers in the area.
One of the best features of the local area is the focus put on youth affairs and developing the young people of the area into considerate, contributing citizens. This has been achieved by focusing on the education of the youth, as well as the provision of sports and social clubs and other amenities outside of school. This good work has been recognised nationally as it has recently been awarded the prestigious ‘100 best communities for youth’ award. This showcases the fact that this is a wonderful place for children to grow up, where lots of services are provided for and local parents can feel safe and secure about their children’s futures.
Get on CA-60 E
5 min (1.5 mi)
Head north on Central Ave
Pass by Jack in the Box (on the right in 1.0 mi)
1.2 mi
Turn right to merge onto CA-60 E
0.3 mi
Follow CA-60 E and I-15 S to Cajalco Rd in Corona. Take exit 91 from I-15 S
21 min (22.3 mi)
Merge onto CA-60 E
7.2 mi
Use the right 2 lanes to take exit 41 to merge onto I-15 S toward San Diego
9.6 mi
Keep left to stay on I-15 S
4.2 mi
Keep left to stay on I-15 S
0.9 mi
Take exit 91 toward Cajalco Rd
0.3 mi
Follow Cajalco Rd and Temescal Canyon Rd to your destination
3 min (1.1 mi)
Turn left onto Cajalco Rd
0.7 mi
Turn right onto Temescal Canyon Rd
0.3 mi
Turn right
138 ft
Turn left
69 ft
Turn right
69 ft
Turn left
Destination will be on the right
285 ft