California Family Law Blog

One of the hardest parts of a divorce is not spending as much time as you'd like with your kids. You look forward to every weekend and school break, trying to make each moment count. Unfortunately, life sometimes has other plans.

Picture this: you're getting ready to pick up your child from your former spouse when you receive a call that the child has become ill and isn't sure that they should leave. You understand that your child may not feel comfortable, but you also want to receive all the time with your child that your custody agreement promises.

Like a corporate partnership, marriage creates a financial relationship in which each spouse owes a fiduciary duty to the other. This requires the highest good faith and fair dealing when financial transactions are concerned. This also includes the obligation to make full disclosure to the other spouse of material facts concerning assets and liabilities (and a variety of additional information) in which both spouses share an interest.

Historically, pets have been treated like property in divorce, subject to the same property division rules as the family home or the car. This has generated concerns, as most pet owners see their pets as members of the family, not assets with a monetary value. The California legislature has responded to these concerns by passing a law that will dramatically change how dogs, cats and other pets are treated in a divorce. 

When dividing marital property pursuant to divorce in California, the rules are clear, but are also often confusing. California is a community property state, and as such all property acquired during marriage is divided 50/50. Most states do not operate under community property rules, preferring instead to use a system of property division known as "equitable division." Equitable division gives the court much more discretion in applying concepts of "fault" to the decision of who gets what in a divorce. California, however, is what is known as a "no fault" state, meaning fault is not considered in this context of deciding who gets what, because (to put it simply) all assets and debts acquired during marriage belong equally to both spouses and must be divided equally upon dissolution of marriage.