What is a Family Law contempt action?

A Family Law contempt action can be Civil or Criminal. In a civil contempt the goal is to have corrective measures take place, whereas in a criminal contempt matter the Citee maybe sentenced to five (5) days in jail for each count. The jail sentence is imposed for the willful disobedience of a valid court order, the Citee must have knowledge of the valid court order. If a Contempt action has been filed against you call the Law Offices of Bettina L. Yanez & Associates, for a free thirty (30) minute consultation.

For example in a Child Support Contempt action, your ability to pay Child Support was determined when the original child support order was made. Thus, your inability to pay your child support is an affirmative defense that must be proved by the Citee.

A Family Law Contempt action is begun by filing the charging document form FL-410, Order To Show Cause, on the seventh floor Family Law Clerks Office. Facts that constitute the contempt are alleged in the affidavit of facts indicating the kind of order that was violated, the date the order was entered and how the violation occurred. [California Code of Civil Procedure § 1211(a)]

A family law contempt action must be personally served on the Citee at least 21 days before the hearing. You or you attorney must appear at the arraignment hearing. If you do not appear in person or by counsel, a bench warrant can be issued. At the Arraignment you will enter a plea of guilt or not guilty and a pre trial date will be set.

At the pre trial a plea may be offered by County Counsel and if a plea is taken, your sentenced will be suspended and you will be placed an three (3) years probation. If you do not accept the plea your case will be set for a hearing. If you do not comply with the terms of your Plea the Department of Child Support Services can file a Petition to Revoke your Probation and the court can impose all or a portion of the suspended sentence.

Update on Tiger Woods’ Divorce

The final settlement of Tiger Woods’ divorce is going to be approximately $750,000,000. This is a large amount of money considering Tiger is worth around $900,000,000. Not only does Elin Tiger’s former wife get $750,000,000 she will also be inheriting the mansion they owned together in Florida. The settlement that was reached in this divorce is that Elin is not able to write a book regarding the divorce. In addition, Woods is unable to introduce his children to any women he is dating unless they are married. Some would say that Tiger got the raw end of the deal. He was the one who was struck with a golf club after the cheating information surfaced. His former wife Elis won the lottery with this one.

Facebook and Divorce: Airing the Dirty Laundry

Not long after Patrick told his wife Tammie he wanted a divorce, she posted an angry, hurt note on "the wall," or public-comments section, of his Facebook page. Embarrassed that his colleagues, clients, church friends and family could see evidence of his marital woes, he deleted it and blocked his wife from seeing his page. A couple of days later, the IT worker in Florida--who asked that his last name not be used in this story — found alarmed messages from two Facebook friends in his inbox. Tammie had used a mutual friend's account to view Patrick's wall and e-mailed several women he had had exchanges with. He says her e-mails were borderline defamatory. She says they merely noted that he was married with children, a fact he had left off his Facebook profile. Either way: Ouch.

For those who want to connect or reconnect with others, social-networking sites are a huge, glorious honeypot. But for those who are disconnecting, they can make things quite sticky. And as the age of online-social-network users creeps up, it overlaps more with the age of divorce-lawyer users, resulting in the kind of semipublic laundry-airing that can turn aggrieved spouses into enraged ones and friends into embarrassed spectators.


Lawyers, however, love these sites, which can be evidentiary gold mines. Did your husband's new girlfriend Twitter about getting a piece of jewelry? The court might regard that as marital assets being disbursed to a third party. Did your wife tell the court she's incapable of getting a job? Then your lawyer should ask why she's pursuing job interviews through LinkedIn.
Battles over finances and custody remain the Iwo Jima and Stalingrad of divorce cases. Opposing lawyers will press any advantage they have, and personal information on sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn is like decoded bulletins from enemy territory. "It's now just routine for us to go over with clients whether they have an active presence on the Web and if they Twitter or have a MySpace page," says Joseph Cordell of Cordell & Cordell, a domestic-relations law firm with offices in 10 states. He advises his mostly male clients to scour their page — and their girlfriend's — for anything that could be used by their ex's legal team. Then Cordell studies the page of the soon-to-be ex-wife.
There's little the besmirched can do legally, unless there are children involved. Family-law courts routinely issue restraining orders to prevent one parent from disparaging another to a child. "The question is, If it's on the Internet, can that speech be blocked?" says Stephen Mindel, a managing partner at Feinberg, Mindel, Brandt & Klein in Los Angeles. "The First Amendment is going to come into conflict with the family-law courts."
Issuing an order to remove children's access to Facebook is pointless, says Chicago-based lawyer Jennifer Smetters. "The kids just go on a fishing expedition to find out what's so secret. And no child needs to see their parent being publicly humiliated." Smetters has seen cases where messages on a social-networking site were part of a harassment campaign that led to the court's issuing a civil order of protection.
It seems everybody — except perhaps some lawyers — would be better off if divorcing spouses gave each other some space on MySpace. But when confused, anguished people look for ways to work through their feelings, a social-networking site can be an almost irresistible venue.

Patrick and Tammie are still active on Facebook. So are decoupled East Coast residents Andrea and Adrian, even after "he told me he didn't have any money and then posted pictures of his new BMW bike," Andrea says. He says Facebook helped her stalk him. "It's had a very negative impact on our communication," he adds.
But there can be some positives. Tammie's friends post supportive messages on her Facebook page. And Patrick says he understands online social networks better now. "It's like putting everybody you know in the same room. I'm using it, but I'm much more careful."
"We had a custody case where a mom assured the court that she hadn't been drinking," recalls the Missouri-based attorney. "But her MySpace page had actual dated photos of her drinking — and smoking, which is also of interest." In another case, a mom had listed herself on a dating site as single with no kids, which Cordell's firm used to cast doubt on her truthfulness.
And that's just the courtroom stuff.

Half the fun of social-networking sites is the posting of personal news. The other half is the posting of personal opinion, something spurned spouses typically have in spades. MySpace and its ilk offer the giddying cocktail of being able to say something in the privacy of your home that will be publicly accessible, along with a chaser of instant gratification. All this at a time when people are often less than their best selves. On the walls of two Facebook groups — I Hate My Ex-Husband and I Hate My Ex-Wife, which together had been joined by 236 Facebook users as of early June — posts include all manner of (often misspelled) vitriol, including some colorful British slang: "my husband is ... a dirty smelly chavvy theivin alcoholic drug addict selfish scum bag" and "my ex wife is a no good lieing slag," each of which was posted alongside a smiling photograph of the commenter.
by time.com

International Parental Child Abduction

Is a serious issue that the Department of State considers to be of high importance so much that the highest priority is given by this agency to the wellbeing of children who are victimized by international parental child abductions.


If you find yourself in this situation and need to speak to a representative at the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, you may send an e-mail to: stkacsinfo@state.gov ( include a daytime phone number), or call them directly at +46 8 783 5375 during their telephone hours Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday between 1:00 and 2:00 PM. For emergencies you may call the switchboard phone number +46 8 783 5300.

Hague Abduction Convention

The United States is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The Hague Abduction Convention is the primary civil law for parents who find themselves involved in an International Parental Child Abduction. This is a way to obtain the return of the children from other treaty partner countries. Countries that are party to the Convention have agreed that a child who was living in one Convention country, and who has been removed to or retained in another Convention country in violation of the left-behind parent's custodial rights, shall be promptly returned. Once the child has been returned, the custody dispute can then be resolved in a court of competent jurisdiction. The Convention does not address who should have custody of the child; it addresses where the custody case should be heard.

To date, the United States collaborates with about 68 other countries under The Hague Abduction Convention. Each country that is party to the Convention has designated a Central Authority, a specific government office, to carry out specialized Convention duties. Central Authorities communicate with each other and they assist parents in filing applications for return of or for access to their children under the Convention. The Central Authority for the United States is the Department of State's Office of Children's Issues. The Central Authority for Sweden is the Ministry for Foreign Affairs ("Utrikesdepartementet"), Department for Consular Affairs and Civil Law.

For left-behind parents seeking the return of their children, one of the biggest sources of frustration is that courts in many other countries do not take into account the prior decisions made by courts in the United States. A custody order in the United States can be meaningless abroad. When confronting this challenge, keep in mind the following three things:

1) Each country is a sovereign nation. Sovereign nations cannot interfere with each other's legal systems, judiciaries, or law enforcement;

2) Generally every country only has jurisdiction within its own territory and over people present within its borders; and

3) Although court orders from other countries may be recognized in the United States under the Uniform Child Custody and Jurisdiction Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), this is rarely true in reverse - U.S. court orders are not generally recognized in other countries.

Office of Children's Issues - International Parental Child Abduction Unit

What is a Dissolution of marriage or Divorce

Dissolution of marriage or Divorce is the termination of a marriage, canceling legal responsibilities and duties of marriage and melting away the bonds of matrimony between couples. In most nations, divorce necessitates the authorization of a judge or other authority in a legal process to finalize a divorce. A divorce does not affirm a marriage null and void, as in annulments, but divorce ends the marital status of a couple, permitting them to marry once again.

Divorce laws fluctuate significantly around the globe. Divorce is not allowed in some nations, such as in Malta and in the Philippines; however, an annulment is allowed.

The legal procedure for dissolution of marriage or divorce may also involve matters of child custody, spousal support, distribution of property, child support and division of debt, though these issues are usually only secondary or resulting from the divorce.

Some jurisdictions do not require a party to claim fault of their partner that leads to the divorce. Even in areas, which have adopted the "no fault" rule in divorce proceedings, a court may still take into account the actions of the parties when dividing the debts, property, evaluating custody, and support of children and spouse.

In most areas, a divorce must be granted by a court of law to become effective. The conditions of the divorce are usually decided by the court, though they may consider prenuptial agreements or postnuptial agreements, or approve agreements that the couple may have agreed to in private. In the nonexistence of understanding, a disputed divorce may be hectic to the spouses and lead to expensive legal action. Other methods to divorce resolutions have recently come into view, such as mediation and collaborative divorce, which settles jointly agreeable solutions to disagreements. In some other nations, like Portugal, when a couple agrees to divorce and to the conditions of the divorce, a non-judiciary administrative being can approve it. The effect of a divorce is that both parties are free to marry again.

In the United States, all states now expect parents to file a parenting plan when they divorce or legally separate.

Adoptions in California

Adoptions in California are approved by the Superior Court located in the County where the parties reside. The adopting parents can begin the process by filing a Petition with the Superior Court. Notice of the action needs to be given to all interested parties such as biological parents, legal guardians (if any), adoption agency if one is involved, the child to be adopted if 12 years of age or older.
The process can be lengthy if the child needs to be freed for adoption. If a parent has not signed a consent form then it is possible that a petition to terminate parental rights needs to be filed in order that the child can be freed to be adopted.
Once all of these steps have been taken the adopting parents will attend a hearing. If the child is twelve (12) years of age or older the child needs to attend the hearing as well.
Pertinent Family Code Sections:
In California:
Family Code § 8600—to be to be adopted a person must be unmarried and under 18 years of age in; unless, the person is an adult who has consented to be legally adopted by another adult.
Family Code §§ 8600; 8601—an adult generally must be at least 10 years older than the child that he or she wishes to adopt.
Family Code §§ 8801.5; 8704— provides that only an underage child's biological parent or parents, a licensed adoption agency, and the California Department of Social Services are allowed to legally authorize an adoption.
The Law Office of Bettina Yanez can assist you in preparing all necessary documents and will guide you through the process.

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