By Wallace Francis This is Part 4 of a four-part series on how a divorce moves through the California courts. Part 1 covered the petition and the response, Part 2 covered financial disclosures, and Part 3 covered motions and temporary orders. This final part covers the judgment. Every divorce case ends with a judgment. The [...]
By Wallace Francis This is Part 3 of a four-part series on how a divorce moves through the California courts. Part 1 covered the petition and the response, and Part 2 covered financial disclosures. This part covers motions and temporary orders. Part 4 covers the final judgment. A divorce usually takes many months, and sometimes [...]
By Wallace Francis This is Part 2 of a four-part series on how a divorce moves through the California courts. Part 1 covered the petition and the response. This part covers financial disclosures. Part 3 covers motions and temporary orders, and Part 4 covers the final judgment. Once a divorce case is filed, both spouses [...]
By Wallace Francis This is Part 1 of a four-part series on how a divorce moves through the California courts. Part 1 covers the petition and the response. Part 2 covers financial disclosures. Part 3 covers motions and temporary orders. Part 4 covers the final judgment. In California, the legal name for a divorce is [...]
By Wallace Francis It started as a research exercise and turned into something I have never seen described anywhere in the legal press: two competing artificial intelligence systems, from two competing companies, engaged in a substantive disagreement about whether my law practice was adequately protecting attorney-client privilege, with my bar license as the stakes. Claude [...]
One of the salient features of family law cases is lying: parties lie, lawyers lie, witnesses lie. One of the other features is that people rarely get punished for it. The lying is so pervasive that it's often not possible for the court to sort out who is telling the truth without investing a [...]
As of Jan.1, 2024 a new law came into effect that clarifies existing ambiguity in the law regarding whether a party can engage in discovery in the context of Domestic Violence Restraining Order. Whereas before the answer depended upon what judge you went in front of and in what county, the new answer is [...]
One important aspect of any family law case is the relative competence of the attorneys involved, the therapists involved, the judicial officer, and if appointed, counsel for the minor children. It is not safe to assume that any one of these people necessarily know what they are doing in terms of being able to [...]
Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation and emotional abuse in which a person seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, making them question their own memory, perception, or sanity. It is often employed by individuals who have Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) or other personality disorders. [...]
Video on Divorced Co-Parenting During Covid-19 A client of mine asked me to sit down and answer some questions about the challenges of divorced parenting during Covid-19. The video is below but keep in mind this is not an easy topic to address as there really is no set standard yet. Hopefully my answers [...]
