1. How long will it take before my divorce is completed?
By law, your divorce can be final six months from the date a copy of the Summons and Petition is legally served on your spouse (regardless of whether property or custody disputes remain).
2. What are your fees?
We charge by the hour. However, in order to ensure that there's enough to cover our initial work, we usually require a "retainer" of about $2,500 (it can be less, depending on whether a single task is involved, or more if it's a very complex case).
This "retainer" is not our fees; it's simply deposited in a bank account from which our hourly fees are deducted each month, with activity statements mailed to you (if the retainer is depleted, you may be asked to replenish it).
Ultimately, it's up to the Court whether you can be reimbursed for these fees, either from your spouse, or the community property.
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3. What is a "bifurcated" divorce?
A bifurcated divorce is one where the marriage itself is terminated while additional time is allowed by the Court to figure out how to divide the property. This way, disputes over how to divide the property don't delay the formal ending of the marriage itself.
4. What is "spousal support"?
Actually, there is no formal definition for "spousal support" under California law! But the term is generally used to mean the money paid by one spouse to the other to either maintain the "way things were" (so each spouse can continue to maintain the same life style as existed during the marriage) and/or to enable one parent to be the "at home" parent while the other is the "work force" parent.
Spousal support can be ordered at the beginning of divorce proceedings as well as once the divorce becomes final. The Court considers several factors in determining how much and for how long the support will be, including how long the marriage lasted, the supported spouse's education, his or her ability to earn and the standard of living that the parties had during the marriage.
5. For how long must one pay spousal support?
If the marriage was relatively short, support can generally be ordered for up to one-third of the length of the marriage. For long term marriages, support can last indefinitely, although the general policy in California is that it shouldn't last for more than one-half the length of the marriage in most cases.
6. Is every spouse in a divorce entitled to spousal support?
No. It depends upon the actual income being earned by the parties at the time of the divorce.
7. Is there a situation in which the wife may have to pay spousal support?
Yes. Starting in the mid-90s, the social-economic status of women began to change and, more importantly, began to be recognized as changing by the courts. Before then, women rarely earned the same as men.
That's not necessarily the case anymore. In our office, roughly 40% of the women of a divorce earn more than $60,000 (up to $150,000) a year, while some husbands earn much less. In such cases, the wife may very well end up being ordered to pay spousal support to her husband if the husband's attorney requests and fights for it!
8. Am I entitled to receive a portion of my spouse's pension?
Depends... If the pension was earned during the marriage (while your spouse was earning "creditable" time towards his or her retirement), the answer is yes. In that case, the Court applies a formula that first determines the "community property interest" in the retirement earned during the marriage, and then figures your separate property interest.
9. What does "custody" mean?
The term custody has several meanings:
1) "Joint custody" means joint physical and joint legal custody of the child or children.
2) "Sole physical custody" means that the child or children resides with, and is under the supervision of, one parent, subject to the power of the Court to order reasonable visitation.
3) "Joint physical custody" means that each parent has significant periods of physical custody in such a way that gives the child or children frequent and continuing contact with each parent.
4) "Sole legal custody" means that one parent only has the right and responsibility to make the decisions relating to the health, education and welfare of a child.
5) "Joint legal custody" means that both parents share the right and responsibility to make the decisions relating to the health, education and welfare of the child.
6) "Primary physical custody" is a term that is frequently used to describe joint custody arrangements. Although useful in settlement discussions, it really has no legal meaning.
Lastly, in deciding how to award custody and visitation rights to one, or the other, or both parents, the Court takes into consideration any history of child or spousal abuse or the habitual use of drugs or alcohol.
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