John Griffith details the steps to take if you receive a letter from the Department of Child Support Services.

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Hi my name is John Griffith. I’m a divorce and family law attorney here in San Diego, California. This is one of a series of videos that addresses common issues that we see in California divorce and family law cases. I should note that nothing I say is meant to be or intended to be or should be taken as legal advice. If you need legal advice regarding your family law issue, you should talk to a family law attorney. My office gives free consultations; I’d be happy to discuss your case with you if you’d like. Give my office a call and ask for John. Today I’ll be talking about the Department of Child Support Services. The Department of Child Support Services is an enforcement agency governed by the state for the collection and initiation of child support orders. If you’ve received a letter from the Department of Child Support Services that means the other parent has asked the Department of Child Support Services to either start an initial child support order, or establish an initial child support order, or take a child support order that was issued by a different court and enforce that order. So if you’ve received a letter from the Department of Child Support Services, you’re most likely the parent that pays child support to the other parent for the kids. Now when a Department of Child Support case is opened, it can either be opened with a petition to establish a parental relationship and parental obligations in which case there is not a current child support order, or it could be the registration of another order for enforcement. If you don’t have a current child support order in place, then you most likely received a petition to establish parental obligations. The first question you need to ask is whether or not the child that’s listed on the petition is in fact your child, and if you dispute the fact that the child is yours then you absolutely need to contest paternity expressly through the Department of Child Support Services, specifically the Family Support Division of the Superior Court. If you fail to respond to this petition with an answer, then the court a default paternity judgment against you, and you could be deemed to be the legal father or legal parent of this child without participating in the case and taking a paternity test. So it’s very important that you respond to the petition and ask the court to order a paternity test. Now the other side of it is if there’s the current order in place, it probably came from a family court as a result of a divorce or legal separation or some other kind of paternity action. There’s a current quarter in place that wasn’t previously being enforced by the Department of Child Support Services, but the other parent now wants the Department of Child Support Services to enforce that order. Now it’s very important that you respond to whatever the Department of Child Support Services is asking of you. Most likely they’re going to ask you to fill out what’s called an Income and Expense Declaration asking for your current income and to attach pay stubs and things like that. Now that Income and Expense Declaration is a four page document that the court looks at. There’s several factors that the court’s going to look at as far as the child support order is concerned and enforcement of the child support order is concerned. If you have any questions on that document, the Income and Expense Declaration, you should talk to an attorney about it and have an attorney help you fill that out. Now there are several ways that the Department of Child Support Services enforces an order for child support. If you’re behind in child support, the Department of Child Support Services can initiate driver’s license suspension. They can, if you owe more than two thousand dollars in child support, they can suspend your passport; they can also revoke your passport. They can notify the Department of State so that you can’t have a passport reissued after it expires. They can levy your bank account, they can levy your tax return, and you if hold a professional license like a law degree or a contractor’s license or medical license, they can actually suspend your license to do what you do for living. So it’s very important that you don’t ignore the letter

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www.5050law.com 619-717-2072 The Law Offices of Daniel J. Martin is dedicated solely to family law and has handled countless divorce and child custody cases. Our goal will be to make this transition as easy for your children as possible.

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John Griffith details how California calculates child support.

Hi, my name is John Griffith. I’m a family law and divorce attorney here in San Diego, California. This is one of a series of informational videos addressed at common issues that you see in California divorce and family law cases. Today I’ll be talking about child support. So you have a child support order, you need to have the child support order modified, or you’re a parent with a child, and you need to establish an initial child support order. You need to know what the California law says about child support. Now as far as child support is concerned, California law is very strict as far as setting the amount for child support. State of California has set up a statutory guideline that guides the court and instructs the court with respect to what factors to use to calculate child support. Now once the court uses these factors and makes findings on the factors to be used, they plug these numbers into a computer, and whatever figure the computer comes out with is the order that the court has to make, with only a few exceptions. Now the factors that the court uses when making an initial order for child support or modifying an order that’s already been made for child support, are as follows: the courts going to look at the gross income of both the parties. Now the gross income means the pre-tax income. And whether you’re a W-2 employee or a self-employed business owner, the courts going to look at how much money you make prior to taking out taxes. That’s the first factor that the court uses. The second factor that greatly increases or influences the amount of child support is the time-share percentage with the children. The time-share percentage is the percentage of time that the non-custodial parent spends with the children. The higher the time-share percentage the lower the amount of child support, and the reason for that is because if the non-custodial parent has the children at his or her house for a certain percentage of time, the court considers that the parent is supporting the children for certain percentage of time. The other factor the court looks at is the tax filing status of both parties. Generally the parent that has the kids living at his or her house claims those children as tax exemptions, so that parent would file accordingly with however many tax exemptions are appropriate. Some of the other factors the court looks at as a deduction in the amount of child support ordered would be any health insurance premiums that the non-custodial parent pays. One of the other factors would be a mortgage interest deduction which affects the tax basis of the income, and the reason the court looks at all these factors is that they’re trying to get to the bottom of how much disposable income a parent has to pay child support. One of the most important things you need understand if you need your child support order modified is that there has to be a significant change in circumstances between the last order and the present time and the time that you file your motion to modify child support. Change in circumstances could mean that you’re spending more time with the kids. A change in circumstances could mean that you lost your job. A change in circumstances could mean that you got a raise. And so the parent that has the children could come in and ask the court to increase the child support order. But there needs to be a change in circumstances prior to the court modifying or changing the amount in child support. Child support orders don’t automatically modify if you have a change in circumstances. For instance if you’re paying child support based on a certain level of income, and you lose your job, and you think that you can’t afford to pay the court ordered amount of child support, you absolutely need to hire an attorney to file that motion to modify immediately. And the reason I say that is because the court won’t go any further back in changing that child support order than the date that you actually filed that motion. Now when you file the motion you’ll get a court date, usually in San Diego County; it’s at least two months down the road, but once you go to court and request that the court modify your order downward, the court’s going to make that order retroactive all the way back to the date you filed, but no sooner, no earlier back than that.

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Family trouble becoming legal problems? Attorney Cecilia Wood has been in business in Austin, Texas, since 1986, working on cases involving Child Protective Services, Child and Spousal Support, Child Custody, Divorce, Family Law, Grandparent Rights, Mediation, and Modification Visitation Disputes.
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John Griffith discusses the steps involved to file for divorce in California.

Hi my name’s John Griffith. I’m a San Diego divorce and family law attorney located up in Solana Beach. This is one of a series of informative videos aimed at addressing common issues that come up in California divorce and family law cases. You should note that nothing I say is intended to be or should be construed as legal advice. Family law cases are all different; they all have unique sets of facts and circumstances. And if you want to address your specific case with an attorney, feel free to call my office. I give free consultations, and we’ll talk about your particular case. Today I’ll be talking about filing for divorce. So you’ve made the decision to go ahead and file for divorce, you want to end your marriage. You need to know what the first step is and what steps to take after that. The first thing that you need to consider is where to file your Petition for Dissolution. And the Petition for Dissolution is the initial filing; it starts a divorce case. And when I say dissolution, I mean divorce. In California we call divorces dissolutions. It’s the dissolving of a marital relationship. So you need to find out where you’re going to file that Petition. In the state of California, you have to be a resident of the state for at least six months prior to filing the Petition. So if you’ve lived in California for at least six months you can file here in California, regardless of where your spouse lives. If your spouse lives in another state, you can go ahead and file in California, have your spouse served, and you’ll be litigating your case most likely in California. Next thing you need to figure out is which county to file your divorce in. You need to live in the county where you’re filing your Petition for Dissolution for at least three months prior to filing the Petition for Dissolution. So if you’ve just moved to a new county, you need to decide whether you want to file in the old county you lived in, or wait the three month period to file in the county that you live in now. It could make a big difference so far as your relationships in the old county as opposed to your relationships in the new county. Now once you’ve decided where to file, you want to go ahead and prepare that Petition for Dissolution. Like I said, it’s the initial document that begins the process. And when you’re looking at the Petition for Dissolution there’s several issues that the court’s going to want you to address. You’re going to be listing all of the minor children of the marriage, you’re going to ask the court for certain orders regarding the custody of the children, spousal support, property division, and probably the most important thing that you’re going to address in the Petition for Dissolution is the date that you want the court to consider to be the date of separation between you and your spouse. And the date of separation can often become a serious issue, because the parties may not agree on the date of separation. So it’s very important that you talk to an attorney about what California law says with respect to the date of separation before filling out that Petition. And I can help you with that. I offer free consultations at my office. I’d be happy to talk about your date of separation and help you fill out that Petition. Okay so once you get your Petition filled out, you file it at the courthouse, and you have to have your spouse served with the Petition for Dissolution, or the petition for divorce. There’s two different ways that the law provides service of the Petition. The first way is by personal service, and by personal service I mean someone physically delivering the petition for divorce to your spouse. And if you hire an attorney, attorneys usually have messenger services and courier services that will go ahead and get that done for you. Now there’s another less intrusive method that I prefer when starting a divorce. You can imagine that divorces can kind of get emotional. The second way for serving a Petition for Dissolution would be by mail. And if you’re going to serve the petition for divorce by mail, you want to make sure to have someone else mail it. You’re not allowed to either do personal service or service by mail, and you include what’s called a Notice of Acknowledgement of Receipt. And if you’re going to do service by mail you want to make sure that your spouse is willing to sign off that he or she actually received that Petition.
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www.5050law.com 619-717-2072 The Law Offices of Daniel J. Martin have found mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to be an effective way to serve people’s interests while avoiding divorce or child custody litigation.

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John Griffith talks about paternity actions to establish paternity and custody rights outside of a marriage.

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John Griffith discusses how to modify California custody and visitation orders.

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http://www.MNFamilyMatters.com Minnesota Divorce Lawyer M. Sue Wilson discusses non-custodial visitation of children of couples divorcing in Minnesota. She explains the Minnesota statute that specifically addresses grandparents’ rights as it relates to the best interests of grandchildren. Attorneys at the M. Sue WIlson Law Offices assist clients with asserting their non-custodial visitation rights . Children benefit from getting to know their grandparents. Minnesota Divorce Lawyer M. Sue Wilson has represented many grandparents with non-custodial visitation issues.
Responsive. Effective. High quality results. We care about your well being

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Interview with Attorney Bob Barrasso. Discussion about new child developments in child custody law including update of new child support guidelines, joint custody, ARS-25-103, cost of custody cases, role of mental health professionals, what couples fight about, effect of drug problems, and more.

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