Palo Alto Family Support Lawyers | Child Support Attorneys Mountain View CA | Alimony Spousal Maintenance Enforcement Modifications

Palo Alto Family Support Lawyers
Child Support • Alimony • Spousal Maintenance • Modifications • Enforcement

Di Maria & Cone

This saves our clients money because their case is not required to go to trial. It also leaves both parties in the divorce feeling more empowered, knowing they participated in the decision-making process. It is important to realize that this is your case and you have the ultimate control over whether to settle your case. Contact us for a consultation.

If we have exhausted every possibility for an informal settlement, we will advocate in a professional and aggressive manner for our clients in court. Our many years of experience in family law will guide our every attempt to obtain child support, spousal support, and attorneys’ fees that work in our clients’ favor.

For legal help with calculation, modification, or enforcement of spousal or child support or attorney’s fees, contact an effective Palo Alto lawyer at Di Maria & Cone. We make sure your best interests, and those of your children, are represented in family support matters. We make sure your best interests, and those of your children, are represented in family support matters.

Under California law, parents have the obligation to support their children and spouses may have an obligation to support each other after marriage by court order. Child support issues may arise over the course of a divorce or between parents who are not married. Some of our clients are women; some are men. Some of our clients have greater earning power than the spouse they are divorcing. Other times, our clients have played more of a supporting role in their families during the time they were married. Consequently, on their own they will have less earning potential, at least at the beginning stages after a divorce.

In a divorce, another family support obligation is spousal maintenance or support, sometimes called “alimony.” One party may have more earning power than the other, who may have served in a household support role during the marriage. When this is true, California courts award spousal support in order to maintain the marital standard of living for that spouse as closely as possible until he or she is able to maintain that standard independently.

Child Support: Under California law, the court must make a child support order where the parties have minor children. The parties cannot agree to terminate child support before the child reaches the age of majority. The amount of child support is generally set by a formula that is based primarily on the differences between the parties’ incomes and the amount of time each parent has with the child. In addition, each parent has the obligation to contribute towards expenses for child care and uninsured medical care, and may be required to contribute towards education and other expenses as deemed appropriate by the court.

Spousal Support: During marriage, each spouse has the legal obligation to support the other spouse. While a man and a woman may agree to end their marriage, in some cases their financial obligation to one another continues. In a divorce, there are two types of spousal support, temporary and long-term. Temporary spousal support is meant to maintain the status quo until trial on support issues. The amount and duration of long-term support depends on numerous factors set by statute.

A court may deny long-term support to a spouse who has sufficient resources for his or her own support from separate property, earnings, or his or her share of the community property. The statutory factors that influence the amount and duration of long-term spousal support and the case law interpreting those statutes may be complex, but it is important to address spousal support carefully and aggressively.

Attorneys' Fees: One party can be required to contribute to the attorneys' fees incurred by the other party in two circumstances in family law proceedings. The first is where the award is necessary to “level the playing field” so that a rich party does not have an unfair advantage over a party with little income and few assets. A party can also be ordered to pay the other party’s fees as a sanction for improper conduct, such as bad faith in settlement negotiations.

Modification of Support: Support judgments or orders can be modified where there has been a substantial change in circumstances, for example loss of a job, retirement, birth of another child, or an illness or disability that limits a party’s ability to work or requires additional expense for a child. In this case, we will represent you in seeking or defending against modification of child or spousal support.

Enforcement of Support: Support judgments or orders generally call for monthly payments over an extended period and some people cannot or do not keep up with the payments. In this case, we will represent you in seeking to enforce or defending against enforcement of child or spousal support.

The Palo Alto, California, family law lawyers of Di Maria & Cone represent clients throughout the state, primarily in the San Francisco Peninsula and South Bay Area communities such as Atherton, Cupertino, Los Altos, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Jose, Sunnyvale, and Woodside.

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The information you obtain at this site is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for individual advice regarding your own situation.

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