Andy Cook
An “Income and Expense Declaration” (IED) is a deceptively simple family law form that is four pages long and was designed by the Judicial C...
Current Issue
By Jeremy J. Salvador
Executive Summary In In re Marriage of Freeman (2025), the Court of Appeal clarified two timing rules that govern Moore/Marsden apportionment calculations: the community’s percentage interest is determined as of the date of separation, whi...
Read full articleAndy Cook
An “Income and Expense Declaration” (IED) is a deceptively simple family law form that is four pages long and was designed by the Judicial C...
Matthew Dodd
Many years ago, I handled one of the most contentious custody cases in which I have ever been involved. As the judge repeatedly reminded, th...
Greg Herring
California’s family law policies and remedies can be attractive to out-of-state parties. For instance, spousal support remains generally rob...
Thomas Kenney, Rachel Leff-Kich
Retroactivity of support orders continues to be a hotbutton issue in California. Over the past six years, the appellate courts have found s...
Seth Kramer
As its name clearly indicates, the Association of Certified Family Law Specialists is an organization made up of attorneys who are certified...
Debra Frank
Happy New Year to All. Christine Gille should be back in her editor’s role for the next issue of the Family Law Specialist. Although family...
Lisa McCall
Motions in limine provide an opportunity for creative lawyering at the outset of a case. They are useful tools that may be utilized to narro...
Kenny Pierce
What is “phantom income”? “Phantom income” can be an issue when dealing with divorcing parties that have an ownership interest in a pass-th...
Louise Nixon, Ann Fallon, Michael Low, Richard Muir, Lorrina Duffy
County Plans, Legal Separation, and Survivor Benefits. Despite California being a community property state, there are many examples of how...
Cari Pines, Kevin James Mooney
From organizing your office to creating pleadings or calendar entries, there’s an app for just about anything a family law attorney can imag...
Kim Cheatum
Introduction “[E]ither spouse has the management and control of the community personal property, … with like absolute power of disposition,...
Seth Kramer
Judge Thomas Trent Lewis would often say that family law attorneys are not only lawyers but also social engineers. I always took that to mea...
Debra Frank
Our lead article for this issue of the Specialist is Kim W. Cheatum’s (Law Office of Kim W Cheatum) guide for the family law practitioner to...
Lisa McCall, Marjorie Fuller
What it is, when you are entitled to one, why it matters, and how to process it The statement of decision process is one of the most impor...
James Dooley
In People v. Sanchez, the 2016 California Supreme Court held expert witnesses can no longer relate case-specific hearsay facts to a fact-fin...