California Family Law Blog

San Jose Bankruptcy Attorney  comments on mother accused of drowning her 3-year old who had recently been through a bankruptcy and divorce.

A Sacramento mother accused of drowning her 3-year old daughter had undergone a host of personal issues within the last year including allegations of domestic violence, divorce and bankruptcy.  Added to her legal troubles are charges of murder and an alleged immigration violation.

Anul Ram filed for bankruptcy in 2008 with her debts more than doubling her assets.  From the court filings it appears that most of her financial issues were related to property co-owned with her ex-husband.  During that same time period she filed for divorce from her husband.

Her husband called police asking them to make a welfare check on his children. When police arrived at Ram’s apartment the 3-year old girl was unresponsive and later pronounced dead at the hospital.  The 7-year old boy in the home was unharmed.

While this is an extreme case, the incidences of irrational behavior by people undergoing financial stress and divorce are well-documented.  If you believe that your spouse may do something to harm one of your children, let your family law attorney or bankruptcy attorney know.  They can help you ensure that your children can be kept in the place that will provide them with the safest possible environment.  No parent should have to wonder if they will ever see their child alive again when they drop them off at their ex-spouse’s home as part of a child custody arrangement.

Mother accused in drowning had filed for bankruptcy, Sacramento Bee, November 16, 2009

If you have a question regarding Bankruptcy in San Jose please contact us at 408.279.2288 or visit www.bkanswers.com and we can connect you with one of our experienced San Jose Bankruptcy Attorneys.  After you have spoken with one of our San Jose bankruptcy attorneys we can schedule you a free face to face appointment in our office location nearest you.  Our team of San Jose Bankruptcy Lawyers can assist you with all aspects of your case. If you are have questions about filing a chapter 7 bankruptcy, a chapter 11 bankruptcy, a chapter 13 bankruptcy, lien stripping, cram down,  stopping a foreclosure or wage garnishment, discharging debt, etc. we can help! We have bankruptcy attorneys located throughout California who can assist your financial needs.  Please feel free to complete our free bankruptcy evaluation and we can quickly determine if you are a qualified candidate for bankruptcy.

San Jose Bankruptcy Attorney  comments downward spiral of former NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar into divorce and bankruptcy.

According to media reports, former NFL star Bernie Kosar’s life after football has spiraled downward into a series of failed business ventures, divorce and bankruptcy.  The former University of Miami and Cleveland Browns star quarterback’s wife filed for divorce in 2007 alleging that Kosar was acting irrationally and giving away their money.   Kosar filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June.  Chapter 11 is typically used for business reorganization during bankruptcy, but it is also used by high net worth individuals who exceed the asset limits for Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Kosar listed assets between $1 million and $10 million and debts between $10 million and $50 million.  Included in his list of creditors are more than $3 million owed to his wife as part of their divorce property settlement.  He also has a $4.2 million judgment from a bank, $1.5 million owed to the Cleveland Browns, and $725,000 owed to the owner of the Cleveland Gladiators.

Kosar blames his trusted financial advisors for many of his problems, claiming that they have mismanaged his funds and even lost $15 million in a short period of time.  But he isn’t interested in having a public fight with his ex-wife.  Instead, he is focused on being a single parent and helping his four children through the next phase of life.  The divorce and bankruptcy are soon to be behind him and he is looking forward to guiding his daughters as they grow into young women.

If you are facing divorce, consult a San Jose Divorce Attorney, who can guide you through your options.  Their expertise can save you from a great deal of heartache later on.

If you have a question regarding Bankruptcy in San Jose please contact us at 408.279.2288 or visit www.bkanswers.com and we can connect you with one of our experienced San Jose Bankruptcy Attorneys.  After you have spoken with one of our San Jose bankruptcy attorneys we can schedule you a free face to face appointment in our office location nearest you.  Our team of San Jose Bankruptcy Lawyers can assist you with all aspects of your case. If you are have questions about filing a chapter 7 bankruptcy, a chapter 11 bankruptcy, a chapter 13 bankruptcy, lien stripping, cram down,  stopping a foreclosure or wage garnishment, discharging debt, etc. we can help! We have bankruptcy attorneys located throughout California who can assist your financial needs.  Please feel free to complete our free bankruptcy evaluation and we can quickly determine if you are a qualified candidate for bankruptcy.

San Jose Family Law Attorney  explains how judges may consider your financial situation, including bankruptcy, when establishing domestic support in a divorce.

If you are going through a divorce, you should know that judges can take a wide range of factors into consideration when establishing domestic support obligations, such as child support and spousal support or alimony.  Whether you are the custodial parent or non-custodial parent, here are some thoughts to keep in mind.

Income plays a large role in determining support.  If there is a significant income disparity between the parents, the one with the lower income may receive support, especially in the cases of split-custody, or where the lower-earning parent is the custodial parent.  The family’s standard of living prior to the divorce is considered, as are the number of children and any special needs the children may have.

If the non-custodial parent is unemployed, has health problems, or has filed for bankruptcy protection, the judge may consider the inability to pay support altogether and may temporarily suspend child support payments until the parent finds a better job or circumstances change.  After the circumstances change, the judge may order the non-custodial parent to reimburse the other parent for the suspended payments.

The court may provide for the earmarking of funds for specific items, such as school fees, day care or medical expenses.  For example, the court may require parents to pay tuition fees directly to their child's school, rather than remitting money to the custodial parent.  To decide what is best for you, please consult an attorney.

Here at Sagaria Law, we offer a full range of family law and legal services including  divorce,  paternity, adoption, child custody and visitation matters, child support, spousal support, alimony, juvenile dependency, domestic violence, division of property, grandparent visitation and custody, etc. We have seven California locations including San Jose, San Francisco, Redwood City, Fremont, San Diego, Roseville and Sacramento. We offer a free thirty minute consultation, either in person at any of our offices, or over the phone. Call our offices today and we can connect you with an attorney immediately or we can schedule your free consultation with one of our family law attorneys : (408) 279-2288 or (800) 941-6730 or visit www.sagarialaw.com

San Jose Family Law Attorney explains how divorce and bankruptcy are often intertwined for couples.

Financial stress is a leading cause of divorce, and during this very difficult economic period, many individuals and couples are contemplating filing for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection.  Depending on your situation, one of both members filing for bankruptcy before you file for divorce may alleviate some of the financial stress on the family.

A married person filing individually for bankruptcy may make sense in certain situations.  If a majority of the debts are in one person’s name, there may be enough debt relief in the individual bankruptcy filing to remove the financial stress from the relationship.  Examples might include a self-employed individual or business owner who has personally guaranteed debts for the business.  Even if the business files for a Chapter 7 liquidation or a Chapter 11 reorganization, the business owner may be personally liable for the business debts, depending on the loan agreement that was signed.    If the couple is living together, the court will want to know the spouses income and assets, but relieving one person’s debts may be enough to give the couple breathing room.

If the couple is firmly on the road to divorce, then filing jointly before filing for divorce will save them the expense of two filing fees and can make the property settlement process much smoother.  Removal of debts before filing for divorce can remove some of the contentiousness after the divorce, especially if one spouse later files for divorce and the creditor later attempts to collect the debt from the other spouse.  A good bankruptcy attorney can work closely with a family law attorney and the couple to ensure a good outcome for each party.

Here at Sagaria Law, we offer a full range of family law and legal services including  divorce,  paternity, adoption, child custody and visitation matters, child support, spousal support, alimony, juvenile dependency, domestic violence, division of property, grandparent visitation and custody, etc. We have seven California locations including San Jose, San Francisco, Redwood City, Fremont, San Diego, Roseville and Sacramento. We offer a free thirty minute consultation, either in person at any of our offices, or over the phone. Call our offices today and we can connect you with an attorney immediately or we can schedule your free consultation with one of our family law attorneys : (408) 279-2288 or (800) 941-6730 or visit www.sagarialaw.com

Fremont Divorce Attorney Discusses an Exception to the Rule

People magazine reports that the Countess LuAnn de Lesseps divorce is now complete. The process was relatively expedient, given the high amount of assets and issues involved. The Count and Countess dissolved their union after 16 years of marriage and producing two children, Victoria, age 14 and Noel, age 12. Although the full details have not been disclosed, it appears that the Countess has received a very generous spousal and child support award, primary custody of the two minor children, and a $7.5 million estate in the Hamptons. She even gets to keep her title! This relatively simple resolution of their marital issues is certainly not the norm, especially in the current economic climate.

In California, couples that have decided to end their marriage are currently often faced with the consequences of short-selling or allowing their homes to go into foreclosure because neither spouse can afford to maintain the mortgage payment on one income. The inability to sell the family home for a profit creates a severe hardship for parents hoping to use equity from their home to start over. This often leads to increased demands for spousal and child support, which creates additional acrimony in an already difficult situation.

Here at Sagaria Law, we offer a full range of family law and legal services including divorce, paternity, adoption, child custody and visitation matters, child support, spousal support, alimony, juvenile dependency, domestic violence, division of property, grandparent visitation and custody, etc. We have seven Northern California locations including San Jose, San Francisco, Redwood City, Fremont, Salinas, Roseville and Sacramento. We offer a free thirty minute consultation, either in person at any of our offices, or over the phone. Call our offices today and we can connect you with an attorney immediately or we can schedule your free consultation with one of our family law attorneys: (408) 279-2288 or (800) 941-6730 or visit www.sagarialaw.com

Sacramento Divorce Attorney Discusses Domestic Partnerships

Domestic partners are unmarried couples, of the same or opposite sex, who live together and seek economic and noneconomic benefits granted to their married counterparts. In a few states, domestic partnership status is offered and regulated by the state and grants many of the rights and responsibilities of marriage. These include health, dental and vision insurance, sick and bereavement leave, accident and bereavement leave, accident and life insurance, death benefits, parental leave, housing rights and tuition reduction, and even use of recreational facilities.

When a state, municipality, county, organization, private company, or university considers providing domestic partnership benefits, it must address several important issues: Who qualifies as a domestic partner? Should heterosexual couples be covered as well as gay and lesbian couples? How will an employer identify the employee’s domestic partner?

Today domestic partnership benefits are offered in numerous situations. However, these benefits are limited. In most cases, all that is offered is bereavement or sick leave. Ion other situations, the benefits offered are comprehensive, but also costly. Often either the employee foots the bill for his or her partner or the company pays but the employee must pay taxes on the benefits. This is because the IRS considers benefits awarded to an unmarried partner as taxable compensation. One interesting note is that even though most domestic partnership applications ask you to state that you are financially responsible for each other’s needs, these application are generally not considered binding or contracts of support.

If you have a question regarding a family law issue or domestic partnership please contact Sagaria Law at 1-800-941-6730 for a free consultation or visit us at www.sagarialaw.com. Our team of Family Law Attorneys can assist you with all aspects of your case. We have attorneys in San Mateo, Monterey, Fremont, Salinas, Sacramento and San Jose.

Redwood City Family Lawyer Discusses Proposition 8: Marriage v. Domestic Partnerships

As Californians get ready to vote for president next week, they are also considering whether to vote for or against Proposition 8. Proposition 8 is a constitutional amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman. In 2008, California’s Supreme Court overturned a similar law as being unconstitutional. Currently, gays and lesbians can be married in California. If Proposition 8 passes, gays and lesbians will only be able to obtain domestic partnerships under the laws passed in 2003 and 2005.

You might be wondering what the differences between domestic partnerships and marriages are, so here at Sagaria Law, we’ve decided to post a little primer, so you can make an informed decision for yourself about whether the two are equal or unequal, and if that makes a difference in your vote.

Marriage:
Married couples have the same basic rights and protections in all fifty states. Someone can get married in New Mexico, move to Florida, and then move to California, and their marriage is valid in all fifty states. In addition to the multitudes of benefits extended under state laws, married couples receive tax benefits, and death benefits under Social Security. Married couples can divorce, receive spousal support and child support, and in California, their property is subject to division under community property laws.

Domestic Partnerships:
Domestic partners in California are subject to many of the same rights and protections and obligations as married couples, including those under probate law, employment law and discrimination law, provided those are California state laws. This means that in California, any right extended to a married couple under California law, has to be extended to a domestic partnership. Furthermore, domestic partnerships are subject to the community property rules and support obligations should the relationship dissolve. The parties must even file a formal termination petition, just as married couples do.

Domestic partnerships are limited to two classes of people: same sex couples, and opposite sex couples over age 62 receiving Social Security.

The biggest difference between domestic partnerships and marriage is recognition, by the federal government and by other states. Domestic partnerships are not valid in all fifty states. So a couple may be a registered domestic partnership in California, but if they move to another state, they will have no rights whatsoever. Furthermore, the federal government does not recognize any type of domestic partnership for any reason.

Marriage, on the other hand, is supposed to be recognized in all fifty states under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution. However, many states have enacted laws that do not recognize marriage between same sex couples, so the picture is complicated by that development. Additionally, at the federal level, Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act which recognizes marriage as between one man and one woman. The future of same sex marriage is unknown, both in terms of California’s laws and what other states or the federal government may do, but one thing is certain: the issue is far from moot.

If you are interested in learning more about dissolving your marriage or domestic partnership, be in same or opposite sex, contact our office today to set up your free consultation. The consultation is thirty minutes long, and is available either by phone or at one of our six Northern California offices: Salinas, Monterey, San Jose, Redwood City, Fremont, and Sacramento. We have a team of talented and experienced family law attorneys who can discuss your specific concerns and situation, and give you advice on how to proceed. Call today to schedule your free consultation 1-800-941-6730 or visit www.sagarialaw.com

The Boston Globe reports that the Boston-based legal advocacy group, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) that helped legalize same sex marriage in Massachusetts is gearing up for a fight to expand rights to same-sex married couples. A spokeswoman for the group that won the landmark 2003 Massachusetts state Supreme Judicial Court case legalizing gay marriage, stated that GLAD is taking aim at the federal Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 (DOMA). GLAD spokeswoman states that the group is targeting the provision of DOMA that denies federal recognition of wedded same-sex couples and is not trying to expand gay marriage beyond the traditionally liberal New England. GLAD has not stated whether they will file a lawsuit or urge Congress to repeal DOMA. However, for more than a year, GLAD has been surveying same-sex couples who have wed in Massachusetts to see whether they want federal benefits currently provided only to married heterosexual couples, including Social Security, payments to families of public safety officers killed in the line of duty, burial in Arlington cemetery, and family leave under federal law.

The Defense of Marriage Act, states that no state need recognize gay marriage from another state and denies hundreds of federal benefits to same-sex spouses. Therefore, California need not, and does not, recognize the marriage of same-sex couples. Although same-sex couples in California can register as domestic partners and receive state-level benefits, California does not yet recognize a marital union in the legal sense between same-sex couples states San Jose family law attorneys. The California Supreme Court is considering challenges to the constitutionality of law prohibiting same-sex marriage in the state, however, as of September 2007, the Court has not yet calendared the matter for oral argument.

Lacy Woo and Christy Chung, the same-sex couple whose names are on all of the arguments in California’s same-sex marriage court case, are ending their relationship. They have requested that their names be struck from the lawsuit challenging California’s marriage statutes. The two women say they remain advocates for same-sex marriages.

Prior to separating the two women were domestic partners that had been together for 18 years. They have daughter together.

Terminating A Domestic Partnership:
Terminating a registered domestic partnership ends the partnership and makes both persons legally un-partnered persons. Each person will no longer have the rights, protections, benefits, obligations, and responsibilities that they do as registered domestic partners.

Continue reading "Registered Domestic Partners Whose Names Headline Case To Legalize Same-Sex Marriages Decide To Separate " »

The deadline is today, November 14, for the plaintiffs' attorneys to file their appeal with the California Supreme Court over the issue of whether or not same-sex couples have the right to get married. Several lawsuits have been filed by gay and lesbian couples as well as the city of San Francisco on this matter.

Last week, the Court of Appeal in San Francisco issued an order saying it would not reconsider its ruling from last month by its panel (in a 2-1 vote) upholding state law, which stipulates that a couple have to be a man and a woman in order to get married—although the panel had agreed that gay and lesbian couples had the right to the same benefits as married couples under California’s domestic partnership system. The court’s ruling had overturned the decision by San Francisco Superior Court that had ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and their right to marry.

While same-sex couples are not currently allowed to get married, in California, they have the right to register their domestic partnership as long as they meet the requirements of Family code Section 297:

· Both partners must reside together.
· Neither must be married to someone of the opposite sex or in another domestic partnership that has not been terminated or dissolved.
· Both partners cannot be related to one another.
· Both partners must be 18 years of age or older.
· Both partners are members of the same sex or at least one partner must be 62 years of age or older.
· Both partners agree to the domestic partnership.
· Both partners agree that the Superior Court of California has jurisdiction over the termination of this partnership.

For a couple wishing to terminate their domestic partnership, here are the main differences between dissolving a domestic partnership and filing for divorce (by a married couple):

Continue reading "In San Francisco, Attorneys For Gay And Lesbian Couples Say They Will Appeal To California Supreme Court Regarding Whether Same-Sex Couples Have The Right To Marry" »