Impasse, Mediation and Divorce
During a recent consultation, one of the spouses asked if I had any experience dealing with impasse, and if so, what were my strategies for getting cases past the deadlock to a place of settlement. That is a pretty big and telling question, at least the second part...
Happy St. Patty’s Day!
Top O’ the Mornin to Ya! With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, I thought I would table divorce stuff for another week and share a little bit about what the day means to me and why. You might figure that with a name like Barney, I have some Irish...
Divorce and Taking a Moment to Breathe.
It is a Friday morning, and come noon I am going to sneak out of the office, drive up to Dana Point and catch a ferry over to Catalina Island. If you have not been to Catalina, it is like a Mediterranean desert isle with hillsides dotted in pastel colored houses,...
Divorce Reimbursement and Paying a Spouse’s Prior Support Obligations
Your situation may involve circumstances where you, or your spouse, was required to pay child or spousal support for a prior spouse or children outside of the marriage. These obligations need to be factored into the family finances during the marriage. So, what...
Paying for Appraisals and other Valuations in Divorce.
To be in a position to understand how to fairly divide assets and obligations in a divorce, we need to know their value. For complying with the Court’s disclosure requirements we are also required to place values on everything. For many assets this is an easy task. ...
Realtors and Divorce
One often challenging issue in divorce is sorting out what will happen to the family residence. I have written prior blogs about some of the options and considerations, including one spouse moving forward with a buyout, deferring the sale until the market is better...
Using Financial Professionals to Support a Healthy Divorce
Most people facing divorce think first and foremost to find a divorce attorney to move them through the process. I encourage couples to also look at hiring a mediator as a first resource. Whichever path is taken there are other professional resources to bring into...
Police Dogs, Bar Exams and Divorce Mediation
This past weekend I was cleaning up some old files and I happened across a copy of my old bar exam dated Tuesday morning, July 28, 1992. I didn’t even realize that I had kept a copy, yet here it was over 30 years later, reminding me of my beginnings in the law. At...
Credit Card Perks and Divorce.
In a recent study it was reported that nearly half of American households use credit cards to earn perks such as cash back, points to use toward purchases, and travel miles. Credit card companies entice users to run up debt so that substantial interest can be earned...
Divorce and the Needs of Adult Children.
For many of us parents who have adult children we recognize that our children don’t magically become fully self-sufficient when they turn 18 and graduate from high school. When couples divorce in California the legal requirement to support them (unless they are...