Anaheim Divorce Blog

1. Whenever filing a divorce suit, you will be considered to be the ‘petitioner; if you were the one to commencing the divorce request. You must fill out the following forms:

-A Marriage Petition is completed with general material about your marriage and can be used to ask for some court orders as well.

-Summons Form: It’s a very good notion to read this form precisely for it contains plenty of facts that will be useful to you for the duration of your divorce case. This form also contains information about restraining orders that limit things you can do with your children, assets, funds etc.

-Property Declaration: Use this form to state to the courts about the property, assets and debts that you and your mate have acquired during your marriage.

-Declaration Under Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act: Fill this form if you have any minor children together with your spouse.

-Child Custody and Visitation Application Attachment: Must be completed if you want to request the court for custody and visitation orders. This form is highly helpful, containing thorough information about how to make schedules for visitations and holidays. These items should not be left out of your court order.

2. You should have all the completed forms double-checked. Otherwise your divorce case might be prolonged due to incomplete paperwork and will waste time by being processed again.

3. Consult with the court clerk to see if there are any added forms that you need to file before finishing your divorce case. Inquire the court clerk or your attorney about any other court forms you may be needing to complete.

4. Finally, you will be expected to give a copy of all the paperwork to your spouse, save a copy for yourself and then give the originals to the court.

Adoption is a very rewarding procedure where in the end you are blessed with a new member of your family, a child who may come from any number of different kinds of backgrounds but who needs your love and support to thrive in life. Adoption is a process in which the legal rights of the birth parents are transfered to you and the child becomes your full responsibility with all the rights and obligations of a birth parent. An adoption is permanent and is exactly the same as a birth family.

There are several types of adoptions and you choose which will best suit your situation.

A stepparent/domestic partner adoption is when a the spouse/domestic partner of a person with a child from another union accepts full rights and responsibilities of the child as a birth parent would. The couple must be legally married or have a registered domestic partnership to qualify and is the simplest of the adoptions because one of the child’s birth parents is still remains the child’s parent.

In an international adoption, the child was born in another country and an agency is often involved because of the complexity of the adoption process.

An agency adoption is when a licensed and registered adoption agency or the State of California’s Department of Social Services is involved in the whole adoption process.

An independent adoption is when an adoption agency or the Department of Social Services is not involved in the adoption process.

In the State of California, a minor is able to get emancipated from his/her parents which means that the parents will no longer be in control of the child’s life. This also means that the parents will no longer be obligated to financially support the minor either. This may be beneficial to the minor if her/she wants to make their on decisions about where to go to school, getting work permits, where to live and about their own medical care.

However, being emancipated does not allow a minor to skip school, get married without a parent’s or judge’s permission and if the child breaks the law, they still have to go to juvenile court.

There are three ways to be emancipated: join the armed forces, get married or get a declaration of emancipation from a judge. If the minor is unable to suppor themselves or is discovered to have gotten the emancipation by falsifying documents or lying, then the ruling is reversed and the minor again becomes the responsibility of the parents.

There are several key differences between a guardianship and an adoption.

Guardianship:

-The parents of the child retain their parental rights and can ask for contact with the child while they are under a guardian’s care.
-The courts have the right to end a guardianship when/if the parents are able to take proper care of the child again. The courts can also reassign guardianship of the child to another person.
-Guardians can he supervised by the courts.

Adoption:

-The birth parent’s rights end
-The adoptive parents take over the legal rights of the birth parents and it is permanent
-The adoptive child will inherit from the adoptive parents
-Adoptive families are not supervised by the courts.

Orange County adoption attorney will be honored to help.

When you want to be the guardian of a child, you must ‘give notice’ to certain people, including agencies and relatives. To ‘give notice’ means that someone (other than yourself) must deliver copies of your court forms to certain people personally or by mail. This is so that required people have knowledge of your request to become a guardian for the child in question and that it is sure that they have the information.

This is a mandatory step when requesting guardianship of a child even if you think that the people won’t care or will disagree with you.

If you need help with guardianship legal issues please contact a family law attorney.