Hepner & Pagan, LLP Family Law Lawyers in Campbell Providing Families with High-Quality Legal Representation

Considering divorce makes sense if your marriage is no longer working out. Before filing in California, you or your spouse must have lived here for six months or more. To file in Santa Clara County, you must have lived here for at least three months. If this is the case, it’s helpful to know that this is a no-fault state, so you can say there are irreconcilable differences rather than having to prove fault. If you’re ready to file and meet the residency requirements, contact us to start your divorce case in Campbell.

A postnuptial agreement serves the same purpose as a prenuptial agreement, except you sign it during the marriage. In this document, you can discuss which assets and debts are community property and which are separate property. You can also determine who will get spousal support and specify which assets will be passed down to your children from a previous relationship rather than your spouse. So, if you didn’t have the opportunity to draft a prenup before you got married, you can contact our family law lawyers to create a postnuptial agreement.

Separate property refers to any assets you already owned before your wedding date. So, if you bought a car before marriage, it’s your separate property and you can likely keep it after the divorce. By contrast, if you purchased a car during your marriage, it’s generally considered community property, and you will probably need to share the value of this asset with your spouse during the divorce. Your family law attorney will guide you through property division if you need clarification on what counts as separate property.

For many people facing divorce, their biggest fear is enduring a divorce trial. This is especially daunting if you must see your spouse in the future due to co-parenting and want to keep your relationship civil. This is why there’s a demand for lower-conflict legal options, such as mediation and collaborative divorce. These are alternatives to a trial, since you can spend a few sessions negotiating with your spouse about child support, property division, and other important details. If you want to stay civil and avoid the courtroom, hire a lawyer with experience in mediation and collaborative divorce.

If either parent has questions about who the biological father is, a paternity case involving a DNA test is typically the right course of action. When the mother proves who the father is, she can go through court to request child support. DNA testing also benefits a biological father who wants child custody or visitation and can only order it after proving paternity. Of course, some men use paternity testing to prove they are not the father and not responsible for paying child support.

If you were ordered to pay child support and can no longer afford the requested amount, you can hire a lawyer to help modify it. You will have to prove that you don’t have sufficient income to pay child support, such as if you lost your job or your boss severely reduced your hours at work. You can also show that your expenses have increased significantly, such as due to a new baby. Experienced child support modification lawyers can guide you through the process of proving that you can no longer pay the amount on the court order.

If you and your spouse agree on all the terms of the divorce, such as alimony and property division, you have an uncontested divorce. This means you can finalize your divorce without going through a trial. By contrast, with a contested divorce, you and your spouse don’t agree on how to split assets, how much child support to pay, who gets alimony, and other details. In that case, you should consider mediation to resolve your disagreements outside of court. Otherwise, you might have to go to trial.

If you want to be the parent who makes decisions for your children, such as which school they attend, you can pursue sole legal custody. If you want them to live with you most of the time, you can seek sole physical custody. A judge might grant you one or both of these types of custody. But most judges want both parents involved whenever possible. So, unless the other parent is unsafe or uninterested in custody, judges tend to grant joint custody, ensuring both parents can see their children and make decisions for them.