Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements get a bad name. These documents are often a source of angst in relationships as people associate them with a sign of distrust. After all, why would I sign a document that sets parameters for our separation as we are about to get married or just got married? We want to quiet these concerns and help California couples understand the importance of these agreements. Pre and Read More

Domestic violence is an undeniably severe matter. Lives and livelihoods are put at risk every day because of acts of violence in the home. If you or someone you know has been the victim of domestic violence, we advise you to contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or seek out resources in your California community. With that said, accusations of domestic violence also put livelihoods at Read More

Where will your case play out? It’s okay if you don’t immediately know the answer to that question. Family legal issues create stress and enough questions in your life to spin you around. However, the answer matters, and many people who come to us to handle their California family law matters haven’t considered the jurisdictional issues in their case. A number of factors impact where your case can take place. It’s Read More

How should child support be spent in California? It’s a question raised in courtrooms and in social settings as people discuss how a parent should or should not spend the money they receive from the noncustodial parent. Everyone has an opinion on how child support should be spent, but what matters is the law. You may be surprised to learn California law essentially stays out of the actual expenditure of child Read More

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. It’s a saying we’ve all heard, but in some marriages, absence just makes getting a divorce a little more complicated. Our team has dealt firsthand with the additional complications that come when a spouse wants to get a divorce but their counterpart is either visiting or living in another country. This leads to questions about how you can actually file for a divorce if you Read More

Marriage is a commitment. So is divorce. Rarely do spouses take the decision of getting a divorce lightly, and both parties have to make their own commitments as the divorce process gets underway. In some cases, however, one spouse completely refuses to participate in the process – ignoring the divorce filing altogether. Our team has worked with clients in California who have filed for a divorce but have a spouse Read More

Divorce cases can drag out and be exhausting for both parties. You are both ready to move on and start a life of your own. Of course, you never planned for this when you started your marriage – which is proof that we can’t always predict the turns life will take. That’s exactly why we’re tackling this subject today. In life, we can’t always plan for what comes next and in some divorce cases, a spouse will die Read More

Dividing assets during your divorce can feel like picking through a pile of memories. You both made a commitment to each other and carried out your lives together, acquiring assets in the process, as if you would never have to get to this point. The most contentious issue in the division of assets is generally going to be the home in which you both lived. In some cases, this property was acquired prior to your Read More

One of the most common divorce tropes is that your soon-to-be ex-spouse is going to “take you for all you’ve got.” You’ve worked hard to get where you are and to hold the assets you do today, so why would you have to turn those over in your divorce? Questions surrounding the division of assets during a divorce are among the most common questions we get at KL Family Law. People understandably want to protect what’s Read More

Last month, we dove into the California child support guidelines and the calculations that go into determining how much you will owe or be owed. The California courts follow this guideline strictly which allows families to set expectations and understand what’s coming in and what’s going out. The reality is, however, that circumstances change and not everyone has a steady income or discipline to reliably pay the Read More