Redwood City, California Family Law Blog

The bonds between parents and their children are often strong and easily endure challenges and hardships. However, life events like divorce can put strains on those connections and create difficulties for individuals in changing personal relationships. A divorce between California parents does not release them from their responsibilities to their kids, but, in some cases, divorced parents can struggle to find balance with the time they and their exes share with the children.

When conflicts arise in the context of child custody and visitation, parents may seek the intervention of the courts to help them restore order into their kids' lives. Additionally, if a parent believes that the other parent is interfering with their parenting time, they may elect to find out more about the law and how it can help them. Attorneys who practice family law are well-suited to advise parents in this difficult situation.

Alimony is a legal obligation that exists between formerly married individuals in California. A person may be required to provide their ex-spouse with money for a period of time after their marriage is over. Many factors, like the age and health of the parties, will influence whether alimony is awarded and how much should be provided to the recipient spouse.

While in some cases alimony becomes a long-term commitment between exes, for others, alimony may be managed through a single lump sum payment. This form of alimony is completed upon the receipt of a single lump sum payment to the recipient and is often used in place of full property settlement agreements between the divorcing parties.

Divorce is a legal event. Though many Californians may think about the financial and emotional components of ending marriages, at its core a divorce is the legal termination of a relationship. If a couple is not legally married then their separation does not require a court's approval to be terminated. In order for a court to get involved in a couple's relationship and bring it to its end there must be grounds, or a basis, for the marriage to end.

Other jurisdictions may recognize fault grounds for divorce. These grounds, like adultery or incarceration, place the blame for the end of a marriage on one of the parties. In California it is not necessary for individuals to identify fault grounds to end their marriages. They must only be able to show that their relationships are marred by irreconcilable differences.

Parents in California are required to provide for their children's needs. This can mean paying for their basic requirements, like keeping roofs over their heads and food in their bodies. When parents live together, they may easily share child-rearing duties. However, when parents separate, it can become much harder for them to share in their required parenting tasks.

Child support is a legal obligation that courts create when parents must share in the financial aspects of caring for their kids. After assessing the parents' incomes and options for providing for their kids, the court will assign payment schedules to ensure that the custodial parents have enough money to get their children what they need. Different child support orders can take on different characteristics, and, for that reason, parents should discuss with their attorneys just what might happen when their child support orders are created.