SAN JOSE FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY - FAMILY & DIVORCE LAWYER

Divorce, Child Support & Custody, Spousal Support, Paternity, Visitation Rights

Legal Help and Representation in San Jose, Silicon Valley & the following surrounding areas: Santa Clara, Campbell, Sunnyvale, Milpitas & Los Gatos, CA

Thomas Chase Stutzman - Certified Family Law Specialist
Attorneys at Law

San Jose family lawyer providing legal advice & help in various California family law matters:

» California Divorce
» Child Support
» Child Custody
» Paternity
» Spousal Support
» Visitation Rights

LET OUR SAN JOSE FAMILY & DIVORCE LAWYER HELP YOU OBTAIN
CHILD CUSTODY & SUPPORT. CALL US NOW @ (408) 294-4600

The law firm of THOMAS CHASE STUTZMAN, A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION HAS SPECIALIZED FOR 28 YEARS IN DIVORCES AND RELATED AREAS OF FAMILY LAW. Those related areas of Family Law include custody and visitation rights, child and spousal support (called “alimony” in other states), characterization, valuation and division of community and separate properties, restraining orders, recovering delinquent support arrearages, pre and post nuptial agreements, and attorneys’ fees. And because of the many years and extensive experience of this law firm concerning such related areas as custody/visitation disputes, move-away battles, and domestic violence restraining orders, etc., we are also extremely experienced and knowledgeable in those areas.

CALIFORNIA FAMILY LAW & DIVORCE LAW PRACTICE IN SAN JOSE

CHILD CUSTODY AND VISITATION: Our work in the area of custody and visitation rights falls mainly in three areas. Firstly, there are often fights between mother and father during a divorce proceeding over who should have legal custody and who should have primary physical custody of the minor child[ren]. Secondly, we are regularly involved in “move-away disputes"; that is, where one parent either during the divorce proceeding or subsequent to the divorce proceeding wishes to move and take the child[ren] either out of Santa Clara County, out of California, or to another country, and the other party opposes this move. Thirdly, we often are requested to represent one of the parents subsequent to divorce proper where one of the parties wants to change or modify the existing custody and/or visitation order.

The general legal standard in California in custody and visitation disputes is “the best interest of the child[ren]. One of the most important criteria used by the court is maintaining continuity and stability for the child[ren]; i.e., they are reluctant to make dramatic sudden changes except in those cases where they determine that an emergency exists. Hence, primary physical custody typically is given to the parent that the court determines has been the primary child care provider prior to the divorce proceeding. “Emergencies” include such things as drug addiction, alcohol addiction, child abuse and domestic violence by either parent. The presence of any of these elements tends to be determinative and to totally preclude or severely limit the party who suffers from these conditions from significant child custody and visitation.

The clear preference of the courts is for the parties to determine custody and visitation rights without court intervention; i.e. through administrative procedures such as mediation. A child custody and/or visitation fight will normally go to trial only after exhaustion of such administrative proceedings.

CHILD AND SPOUSAL SUPPORT: California adopted a number of years ago the concept of a mandatory child support guideline, which is stated in its Family Law Code as an algebraic formula. The most important variables in this determination are normally each parent’s income and each parents timeshare, i.e., how much each parent spends with the child. Courts have very little flexibility in deviating from this mandatory guideline support amount and do so in only very limited circumstances. Hence, in California child support is usually determined by using one of the three computer software programs with the real fight being over which numbers the court should use regarding each of the variables.

Spousal support, in contrast, is theoretically dealt within a two-phase fashion. The first phase [i.e. “temporary spousal support”] typically occurs fairly early during the divorce proceedings and is similarly determined on a computer. Typically the same program used to determine child support will be used to determine temporary spousal support. In contrast, “ permanent spousal support” is typically determined at the end of the divorce proceeding and is based upon a consideration and application of the factors found in Family Court § 4320, including such factors as longevity of the marriage, health of the parties, education of the parties, income of the parties, assets of the parties, etc.

While the court has very little flexibility in determining guideline child support, the court has considerably more flexibility in determining permanent spousal support. There is often significant trading and bargaining between the parties in arriving at spousal support. Often parties will trade other assets and/or debts in exchange for more or less spousal support. Hence, representation by a certified family law specialist, such as our firm, is often extremely beneficial on this issue and the failure to have adequate representation may cost a party, in the long run, many thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.

CHARACTERIZATION, VALUATION, DIVISION OF COMMUNITY AND SEPARATE PROPERTY: California is a community property state. Community property is defined as earnings during marriage and property acquired with those earning with the exception of gifts and inheritance. Separate property is defined as earnings before marriage and property acquired with those earnings, earnings after separation ... , and gifts and inheritance during the marriage. The “50/50" division rule you probably have heard about applies only to community property; each party is entitled to keep his/ her own separate property [and normally neither party has any claim to any part of the other party’s separate property!]

However, this “50/50" division rule is deceptively simple; no where does the law in California specify how specific items of property or debt are to be divided. Hence, this is another area of family law where our 28 years of experience, and being certified family law specialists, has repeatedly had tremendous benefit and advantage for our clients, for we are often able to suggest and obtain results that a lesser experienced attorney would not be able to achieve, and in the process either save and/or gain for our clients many thousands or tens of thousands of dollars of additional property; i.e. fashion a division community property that fits the particular facts of the case.

Our law firm is particularly proud of the fact that we tend to settle more than 99% of our cases in the area of property division by using our creative abilities and tremendous experience, with the goal and end result of thereby lessening attorneys’ fees and costs and avoiding stressful and expensive trials.

RESTRAINING ORDERS: Ever since the courts were expressly required to take into consideration domestic violence in determining custody and visitation, there has been a dramatic increase in the number and frequency of domestic violence allegations in California divorce proceedings. Regularly we obtain for our clients domestic violence and/or other forms of restraining orders and/or represent our clients in fighting restraining orders being inappropriately requested by the other side. However, this is a seemingly simple area of family law that in fact has many hidden traps and pitfalls for the inexperienced but may have results which have tremendously long term negative effects, and therefore again, benefits the client who retains experienced and certified specialist to assist him or her.

Seeking Legal Representation in Family or Divorce Matters?
Speak to a San Jose Family & Divorce Lawyer
For Legal Advice Now @ (408) 294-4600