California Family Law Matters
The California Family Law court hears a variety of different types of proceedings. This includes matters involving terminating a marriage or domestic partnership, child custody and visitation matters, child support, spousal support, paternity and adoption.
Any person can choose to represent themselves in their California family law matter. It is not required to hire an attorney. In fact, in many routine family law matters, hiring an attorney is simply not necessary.
California Family Law matters can be uncontested (meaning the parties involved agree with each other) or contested matters (the parties don’t agree.)
In uncontested proceedings, the parties involved are able to keep their case “out of court,” agreeing to a complete resolution of all the issues without a formal court hearing or trial through a written marital settlement agreement. Sometimes the parties are able to reach agreements from the outset, and sometimes negotiation between the parties is required. Even if a matter is considered “uncontested,” the final resolution of all matters must be approved by the court.
Some courts require a short uncontested hearing to be held, where the Court will review and approve any agreements made by the parties on the record after brief testimony of one or both parties, and some courts will approve the agreement without a hearing.
For more specific information on a variety of California family law issues, click here.
- Terminating a marriage through divorce, annulment or legal separation
- Preparing Marital Settlement Agreements
- Establishing court orders about child custody, visitation, support or spousal support
- Modifying court orders about child custody, visitation, support or spousal support
- Preparing Responses to Petitions and/or various types of Motions in contested matters
- Effecting the formal division of retirement plans through a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO)
- Establishing paternity
- Obtaining move-away orders
- Bifurcation of divorce proceedings (allows the marriage to be terminated prior to the settlement of the issues)
- Preparing Stipulations and Orders by mutual agreement of the parties including modification of Judgments or previous court orders
We can prepare all necessary court documents in most routine proceedings covered by the family law courts in California. There is no need to hire an attorney. We make it easy for you to represent yourself. Select one of our packaged services or, for more information on a specific topic of interest, visit the California family law news section of our website.