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Divorce affects all areas of one’s career and life. However, divorce primarily is business litigation with special circumstances that affect very personal issues. A divorce typically involves adults and children alike.

Every divorce action is different. The divorce action is only a part of the whole legal activity. Property settlements and child custody issues typically extend over time and require special techniques.

The law firm of Michel & Rhyne is dedicated to achieving your specific Family Law requirements with care, concern, and efficiency™.

Our Orange County, California, law firm specializes in divorce cases. We provide the finest in divorce and family law counsel, focusing in the following areas:

Divorces often require many different specialists, such as accountants and psychologists, to achieve the best result. We work closely with these specialists. Together, we assist you by competently and promptly handling issues as they arise. For details, please read more about our services below. Then, call us at (949) 553-1223 or (949) 553-1224 to schedule an appointment.

Dissolution of Marriage, Domestic Partnerships & Legal Separations

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Dissolution of marriage, domestic partnerships and legal separations are all the same. Please contact us to determine which is most appropriate for your situation.

Mediation

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Mediation is an alternative to resolving family law disputes via formal litigation. A neutral intermediary (the mediator) defines the conflicting interests of the parties, explains the legal implications, and attempts to help the parties reach and prepare a fair settlement. When settlements are achieved, they are typically reached more quickly and cheaply because opposing parties have not hired opposing counsel to fight it out in court.

Resolving a dispute by mediation requires that both parties agree to mediate the dispute. It also requires a good faith effort by the parties to resolve the dispute, not to determine who is right and who is wrong.

Child Custody

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Child custody is an area where having experience and knowledgeable representation like Michel & Rhyne is critical. Custody issues can be a complex and painful dissolution process and often the most expensive aspect of divorce.

The wishes of a child can be one factor in deciding custody. The weight a court gives the child's wishes will depend on the child's age, maturity, and quality of reasons. Some judges do not even listen to the preferences of a young child (for example, a child less than ten years old) and instead assume the child is too young to express an informed preference. A court is more likely to follow the preferences of an older child, although the court will want to assess the quality of the child's reasons. If a child wants to be with a parent only because that parent offers more freedom and less discipline, a judge is not likely to honor the preference. A child whose reasons are vague or whose answers seem coached may not have his or her preferences followed.

Child Support

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Under federal law, all states have guidelines to determine child support. The guidelines are formulas that consider the income of the parties, the number of children, and perhaps some other factors. The formulas are based on studies of how much families ordinarily spend on child raising. The formulas try to approximate the proportion of parental income that would have been spent for support of the child if the family had not been divided by divorce. Courts plug numbers into the formula and come up with an amount of support that should be paid. The parties can argue that because of special circumstances, a court should order more or less support than the guideline amount.

Spousal Support (Alimony)

When a married couple gets a divorce, the court may award "alimony" or spousal support to one of the former spouses, based either on an agreement between the couple or a decision by the court itself. Following is a discussion of the basics of alimony and spousal support.

The purpose of alimony is to limit any unfair economic effects of a divorce by providing a continuing income to a non-wage-earning or lower-wage-earning spouse.

Unlike child support, which in most states is mandated according to very specific monetary guidelines, courts have broad discretion in determining whether to award alimony and, if so, how much and for how long. The Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act, on which many states' spousal support statutes are based, recommends that courts consider the following factors in making decisions about alimony awards:

Although awards may be hard to estimate, whether the payer spouse will comply with a support order is even harder to gauge. Alimony enforcement is not like child-support enforcement, which has the "teeth" of wage garnishment, liens, and other enforcement mechanisms. The recipient could, however, return to court in a contempt proceeding to force payment.

Alimony is often deemed "rehabilitative," that is, ordered for only so long as is necessary for the recipient spouse to receive training and become self-supporting. If the divorce decree does not specify a spousal support termination date, the payments must continue until the court orders otherwise. All California awards end if the recipient remarries. Termination upon the payer's death is automatic but a life insurance policy can be ordered to be in effect.

In the past, most alimony awards provided for payments to former wives by breadwinning former husbands. As the culture has changed, so that now most marriages include two wage earners, women are viewed as less dependent, and men are as likely to be primary parents, the courts and spousal support awards have kept pace. More and more, the tradition of men paying and women receiving spousal support is being eroded, and orders of alimony payments from ex-wife to ex-husband are on the rise.

Division of Property

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California is a community property state. Community property is property acquired during the marriage other than by inheritance or gift. There are specific rules regarding separate property that must be considered.

Domestic Violence

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Domestic violence is a power and control issue and does not always include physical violence.
Domestic violence includes:

Typically, many kinds of abuse go on at the same time in a household. In most states, the victim of an abusive live-in lover can obtain a TRO or emergency protective order. In a few states, the victim of any adult relative, an abusive lover (non-live-in) or even a roommate can obtain such an order.

Paternity Issues

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The law presumes that a married woman's child is her husband's. The husband must support the child unless he can prove in court that he is not the father. Some states presume the husband is the father and will not allow a husband to disprove paternity of a child born during the marriage. If a state does allow a husband to disprove paternity of a child born during the marriage, the law may set a certain time period after birth (such as two years) within which the husband must disprove paternity.

Palimony & Non-Marital Relations

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Palimony is a phrase coined by journalists -- not a legal concept -- to describe the division of property or alimony-like support paid to one partner in an unmarried couple by the other after a breakup. Members of unmarried couples are not legally entitled to such payments unless they've made an agreement about it.

In the famous case of Marvin v. Marvin, the California Supreme Court ruled that a person who lived with a partner and later sued for support could argue that an implied contract existed between the partners. To avoid a battle over palimony, it's wise to create a cohabitation agreement that speaks to whether or not one partner will make payments to the other in case of a break-up. However this agreement can be verbal or even implied. The laws that protect married people and their property do not protect people simply living together.

Prenuptial Agreements

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A prenuptial agreement ("prenup" for short) is a written contract created by two people before they are married. A prenup typically lists all of the property each person owns (as well as any debts) and specifies what each person's property rights will be after the marriage. A prenup is a divorce in advance, similar to a trust providing provisions after death.

Contrary to popular opinion, prenups are not just for the rich. While prenups are often used to protect the assets of a wealthy fiancé, couples of more modest means are increasingly turning to them for their own purposes. For example, a marrying couple with children from prior marriages may use a prenup to spell out what will happen to their property when they die, so that they can pass on separate property to their children and still provide for each other, if necessary. Without a prenup, a surviving spouse might have the right to claim a large portion of the other spouse's property, leaving much less for the kids.

Couples with or without children, wealthy or not, may simply want to clarify their financial rights and responsibilities during marriage. Or they may want to avoid potential arguments if they ever divorce, by specifying in advance how their property will be divided, and whether or not either spouse will receive alimony. (A few states won't allow a spouse to give up the right to alimony, however, and, in most others, a waiver of alimony will be scrutinized heavily and won't be enforced if the spouse who is giving up alimony didn't have a lawyer.) Prenups can also be used to protect spouses from each others debts, and they may address a multitude of other issues as well.

Please refer to this article on prenups featuring Karen Rhyne and Michael Michel.

(* Descriptions provided by the American Bar Association Family Legal Guide)