Irvine Family Law Blog

When discussing the custody of a child after your divorce or legal separation is finalzied, the topic of ‘physical custody’ may arise. Physical custody can be either joint or primary and refers to who the child will be living with and how this living arrangement will be split between each parent, if at all.

Joint physical custody means that the child will live with both parents where the child will spend a scheduled amount of time living with one parent and the remainder of the time living with the other. This arrangement does not necessarily require that the child’s time be equally split between both parents. This arrangement is often dependant on everyone’s lifestyles and what is best for the child. When one parent cares for the child more than half of the time, this parent if often referred to as the ‘primary custodial parent’.

Sole physical custody means that child lives with one parent the majority of the time and visits the other parent on occasion.

It has been known that a judge will order joint legal custody of a child but not joint physical custody which means that both the parents will be able to make important decisions about the child’s care but the child will live the majority of his time at one parent’s household. The parent who does not have physical custody usually has visitation with the children.

If during a divorce or separation case the couple cannot come to an agreement on ALL the issues at hand, then the case is then ‘contested’. If this happens, the couple can ask for a separate trail to reach some sort of consensus on the issues that haven’t been settled. Often the court will allow a separate trial so that the couple can come to an ‘answer’ of sorts so that the main trial can then move along and be finalized.

A few of the issues that a couple might have difficulty coming to an agreement on might be things like:

-Custody orders
-Visitation orders
-The validity of a prenuptual agreement
-How to end a marriage
-The date of separation.

Annulments are rare and they signify that the marriage or registered domestic partnership was never legally valid. Once you’ve gotten an annulment, it would be as if your marriage or registered domestic partnership never happened. For more information contact a divorce/family law attorney in Orange County.

There are several reasons why a marriage would be considered void:

-Incest
-Bigamy
-Under age marriage
-Insanity/unsound mind where a person in the marriage or domestic partnership does not understand the nature of a marriage or domestic partnership
-Fraud where the marriage is a result of a fraudulant act
-Force where the marriage or domestic partnership is a result of a forced consent
-Unable to consumate the marriage

To obtain an annulment, you must be able to prove one of the above reasons that your marriage should be considered void. This act may be a difficult task so it’s important to get professional help when trying to prove a marriage or domestic partnership should be legally void.

There are currently three types of visitation orders that cane be issued:

-A visitation order is when a parent is with the child for less than half of the time. It is best to prepare a visitation schedule so that it will reduce conflicts and confusion when it comes to important events and holidays.
-A supervised visitation is when a parent/child visitation must be overseen or supervised by someone from a professional agency, by another adult or even by yourself. This is done for the child’s safety and well-being or in cases where a child and parent need to get better acquainted or familiar with each other for instance, when parent and child haven’t seen each other in a long time.
-An order for no visitation is issued that it’s in the best interest of the child to have no contact with a parent because it is deemed harmful for a child to visit a parent, either physically and/or emotionally.

There are two grounds for divorce in the State of California which a no-fault state; irreconcilable differences and incurable insanity. These will appear on the divorce petition and you simple mark a tick in the box that’s appropriate to your situation.

Irreconcilable differences refers to the couple having such significant differences that it makes it impossible to carry-on making a life together. There is no need to specify what the difficulties are and the court will allow a divorce under these circumstances. This is the most common grounds given for a divorce.

Incurable insanity is almost never used as a reason for divorce but if utilized, there must be medical proof given to validate the accusations when the petition is filed with the court.

For an Orange County divorce attorney contact us.