San Bernardino Divorce Attorney
Dissolving a marriage can be a stressful and emotional experience, but it is important to stay levelheaded throughout the divorce process. Many essential legal decisions need to be made that will impact the rest of your life and you need to have a strong legal advocate representing and protecting you as those decisions are made. A San Bernardino divorce attorney at Milligan, Beswick, Levine & Knox, LLP can help.
The divorce process involves filing for divorce with the courts, having your spouse served with divorce papers and negotiating or litigating a settlement. A custody agreement must be reached if you have children and you must resolve all issues related to shared marital property and shared marital debt.
At Milligan, Beswick, Levine & Knox, LLP, our San Bernardino divorce lawyers will work to advise you on all of these key issues and work to help you walk away from the divorce with your finances and relationship with your children intact. We also represent clients who are ending domestic partnerships and who need help with the legal requirements and logistics.
California Divorce Laws
In California, divorces are granted on a no-fault basis. This means that you divorce because of irreconcilable differences and not because any party was to blame. There are certain requirements that must be met regarding residency and time of separation in order to end your marriage, and our San Bernardino divorce attorneys will guide you through the steps of the process.
One of the most important steps in this process is separating your shared affairs. The essential issues that you will need to resolve as you dissolve your marriage include:
- How custody of the children will be shared
- Who will make decisions for the children and how will these decisions be shared
- Who will pay child support and how much must be paid
- What will happen if the parent with primary custody wants to move away with the child
- Whether spousal support will be paid and, if so, how much and for how long
- How marital assets will be divided
- How marital debts will be divided
Ideally, you and your spouse should negotiate with each other on these issues and create a settlement agreement that you can then take to court. Resolving these issues yourself allows you to end up with an outcome that makes sense for your family. It also allows you to save a lot of money since you do not need to spend weeks or months in court. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you avoid the stress that goes along with a bitter and acrimonious divorce.
To negotiate the issues outside of court, however, you and your spouse will each need a legal advocate who understands California divorce law and who can negotiate expertly on your behalf. A San Bernardino divorce lawyer at Milligan, Beswick, Levine & Knox, LLP can provide invaluable assistance in the negotiation and drafting of a divorce settlement agreement.
Community Property Rules
In many situations, couples are not able to resolve divorce matters completely on their own. When a court makes a decision on how property is to be divided, community property rules apply in California. This means that the court will divide all marital assets 50-50 regardless of who bought them, who earned money for them or who believes they “own” them.
Understanding the community property rules can help you form a realistic idea of what you might be entitled to in a divorce. Our San Bernardino divorce lawyers will explain these rules to you, as well as the California laws on custody, spousal and child support.
Contact Milligan, Beswick, Levine & Knox LLP Today
Once you have decided to end your marriage, the outcome of your divorce settlement is going to shape the rest of your life. From the amount of money you have to the amount of time you get with your children, the decisions made during divorce are some of the most important decisions that will ever be made.
Our experienced San Bernardino divorce attorneys understand how important it is that you get an outcome that works for your family during the divorce. We are ready to use our legal knowledge and expertise to provide you with dedicated, professional and compassionate legal representation. Give us a call today at 909-798-3300 or use our online contact form to learn how we can help you.
