In an effort to set the record straight on how the state’s family law legal system works, I’ve compiled a list of the top 30 family law myths that I’ve encountered, along with responses I have formulated to dispel these common misconceptions. To make the information easy to digest, the article is broken into three parts:

1.  I can get remarried 6 months after I file for divorce.
Just filing your divorce petition does not permit you to marry after 6 months. You must get a court to issue a judgment that terminates your marital status. The earliest you can terminate your marriage and be returned to the status of a single person  is  6 months from the date a filed divorce  petition  was served on the other spouse and no sooner.

2.  If s/he withholds support, can’t I retaliate by withholding visitation, and vice versa?
The right to receive  child support payments is an independent legal right enforceable by a court order. The court will always protect the child’s right to have a consistent and uninterrupted relationship with both parents. You cannot withhold a child’s contact with the other parent as a remedy to deal with unpaid support. If support is not being paid, go back to court to get help from the judge on collecting the unpaid support. By withholding contact between a parent and child, you risk violating any visitation court orders issued by the judge and risk a contempt motion as well as a change of custody to the other parent.

3.  If she marries a high earner, my child support payments should go down.
The income of a new spouse or partner of a parent obligated to pay support cannot be used as a factor to reduce child support.

4.  If I marry a high earner, isn’t it true that my child support payments will go up?
The same answer as above applies here. The income of a new spouse or partner of a parent obligated to pay support cannot be used as a factor to reduce or influence child support.

5.  If I buy a house with a fat mortgage, I can’t afford child support, so it should go down.
Back in 1984, the California courts adopted a guideline for child support that we follow to this day. The three factors that influence child support are: gross incomes of the parents, percentage of parenting time share and ( as a distant third) dependency exemptions/tax filing status. The courts treat child support as a first in line creditor and other bills like a real estate mortgage do not weigh in. The tax advantage of having a home mortgage with a large tax deductible  interest payment may act as an element that could actually increase child support!

6. Isn’t  child  custody  about fairness?
Child custody is based on what is in the  best interests of the child. If  parents cannot agree on a parenting plan, the court must step in and determine what arrangement would be the best emotional and physical arrangement for the child(ren). The judge’s decision will never be as good as the arrangements parents work out with one another.

7.  You have to be married 10 years to get a part of your ex-spouse’s pension rights.
Any earnings acquired from date of marriage to date of separation is considered community property. These monies used to acquire retirement benefits, pensions, profit sharing, stocks etc…will be community.  The length of marriage has no bearing on your right to the community property acquired from date of marriage to date of separation.

8.  If my name is not on the credit card,  isn’t it true that I don’t owe this debt incurred during marriage?
Under the law, a marriage is like a business partnership. You can ultimately be held accountable for the debts  either spouse incurred during the marriage. This legal rule protects creditors from a spouse claiming that the debt acquired during the marriage  belongs to the other person. If the debt was incurred while married, it does not matter whose name is listed on the charge card.

9.   S/he is the one who moved, so s/he should have to pay the kids’ travel costs.
The duty to pay for the cost of travel, like the duty to pay child support, is typically driven by the incomes of the parties. If the parents are considered equally matched on relative incomes, the court usually will expect the parents to equally share domestic transportation costs. If there is a disparity of income between the parents, then the court has the power to apportion the travel costs between the parents.

10.  If I don’t like the judge’s decision, can’t I  always appeal?
You have a right to appeal a legally wrong decision. You don’t have a right to appeal a decision simply because you did not like the judge’s decision. A determination must be made if there actually is an issue that would justify a higher court reviewing a lower court decision. If the trial judge made an appealable error concerning how the law was applied, the judge could be reversed on appeal. However, appellate law is very technical and really requires an experienced family law appellate attorney to determine if there is any merit to an appeal.

Arlene Kock, CEO of the Law Offices of Arlene D. Kock has over 30 years experience in handling difficult child custody and family law matters. Proficient in practicing in all Northern California Jurisdictions, Ms. Kock’s office is located in San Ramon CA and you may visit her website at http://www.sanramonchildcustodyattorneys.com/.  Ms. Kock is also a member of the LawGuru Attorney Network.

For landlords and property managers, there are definitely such people as bad tenants. Maybe they trash their apartment, constantly skirt rules, always create noise complaints, etc.  But one of the worst things a bad tenant can do is simply not pay their rent because it creates a great degree of hassle and impacts your own income.

You want to make sure you get paid, but you also want to make sure that you go about things the proper, legal way. Here are three tips for dealing with those tenants that don’t pay.

Tip #1: Draft a good contract, or at least review what your current agreement states.

The first thing you need on your side is the power of enforcement – and that’s what potentially comes as a result of the written agreement between you and the tenant. If they are responsible for making a payment and they fail to make good on that promise, then you hypothetically have the power of the law on your side.

It is important to note, however, that just because you have a written arrangement does not mean that the full force of your local justice system will be used to ensure that you receive what’s coming to you. But you do need to make sure that you have a solid legal footing to fall back on if worse comes to worst.

Tip #2: Alert your tenant of the consequences of non-payment.

As soon as you can, make sure that your tenant knows that you’re serious about receiving payment and that you’re willing to quickly enforce the powers you do hold if they don’t make good on their rent soon. You don’t have to do it with any hint of anger or aggression, but it is important that you do it. Otherwise your tenant may think that you are “flexible” regarding the rent date or that you’re somehow willing to accept a late payment.

Don’t let this happen – be on top of things by letting them know you’re aware of the problem right away. You may just find that they respond in kind by paying off their rent as quickly as possible.

Tip #3: Be willing to negotiate.

Admittedly, some people fall on hard times. They might want to pay you rent but simply can’t swing it anymore – in these cases, you’re often better off accepting some sort of settlement from them that you both agree to rather than kicking them out as soon as possible.

The more you’re on top of things, the more your tenants will respect that they can’t afford to waste your time. Be polite but stern; you’ll find that more tenants not only respect you this way…but they will ultimately respect your property too.

Essentially, the LLC does exactly as advertised – it keeps your liability limited. But while many people might just form one or two LLC’s in order to keep their assets protected, others take it a step further and create an umbrella LLC – or parent LLC – to really funnel liability away from them personally.

So if you’re asking why you might need an LLC, the picture might be clearing up for you: it may just be your way to prevent any potential financial disasters headed your way.

The Parent-Subsidiary Structure

When creating a parent LLC, you also need smaller LLC’s – the subsidiaries – to flow through that same parent LLC. This creates a parent-subsidiary structure that can be surprisingly efficient for tax purposes. But because our focus here is liability, it’s also important to recall just how efficient this structure can be to avoiding it.

For example, consider this point: with just a single LLC, there is only one link of ownership between you and the LLC. But in the parent-subsidiary structure, even tracing a subsidiary LLC to its owner will only take the plaintiff to the parent LLC, which again is separate from your personal and core assets. While they might be able to sue the company, they’re not able to sue you because you have no personal liability invested in said company.

When Do You Need this Structure in Place?

Some lawyers will tell you that LLCs are so easy and efficient that it’s a great idea to simply set them up all the time. This is particularly applicable in the area of real estate, where liability questions constantly present potential problems. Others will have you split up your own property into these separate entities so that you’re immune from all manners of financial worries.

The truth is, your own situation will dictate your need for parent LLC’s and the parent-subsidiary structure. If you don’t own a lot of property, it might not make as much sense to set up entire companies to protect it. If you own a lot of assets and real estate, on the other hand, you’ll want to divide up this empire to avoid making it vulnerable to a single attack.

Some advocates will say that you can use this structure even if you’re not rich; it’s simply a self-protection measure. If that’s important to you, it’s worth investigating the parent-subsidiary LLC structure even further in order to find out how to do it, and whether it’s truly the right decision for you.

But what does that mean – “executed”? And who generally becomes a will’s executor? Who should yours be? These are all questions that we’ll answer in this in-depth look of the role of will executor.

Defining the Executor

Quite simply, an executor is someone who executes something. That doesn’t mean that you’re the executioner, of course, but simply that you carry out an intended act. To “execute” a will, then, is to make sure that it is carried out according to the deceased’s wishes. As will executor, this will be your role.

What types of responsibilities will this entail? Generally, it depends on the person’s own will. But some common responsibilities include submitting the will to probate, disbursement of property and assets to those who are due to receive them and handling of debts and payment claims. Essentially, the executor is acting as a final overseer of an estate after the deceased has already passed on.

Needless to say, an executor should be someone that is highly trusted by the person drafting the will.

Who Should Your Executor Be?

If you’re drafting a will and are wondering who your executor should be, don’t be worried. Naming a will’s executor is not a difficult process at all, and asking someone for their permission firsthand will feel like an honor to them.

But when you’re making your decision, you’ll still want to consider a few things. First, you need someone that you trust implicitly. For many people, that person is simply a lawyer they’ve been working with for a long period of time. For other people, it’s a trusted family member, or even a spouse. For others, it might be a friend who’s remained close to them over the years.

Since each person’s life is different, it follows that each person’s executor will be different. But every executor should be someone that is trusted implicitly by the person drafting the will.

Where to Go From Here

Still in the process of drafting that will? Thinking about re-doing the old one? Naming an executor to your will is not nearly as hard as you think; you simply need to get in touch with your regular lawyer and ask them how it’s done. They’ll be able to help you with a brief phone consultation and might only require you to come in once quickly to sign the new papers.

The more you trust your executor, the more secure you’ll feel that your things will be taken care of when you’re gone. That’s part of creating a lasting peace of mind and knowing that all of your affairs are in order – even if it’s well ahead of your time.

If you’re going to appear in a deposition, or participate in one in any way, it will help to know what you’re getting yourself into. With that in mind, we’ve prepared five essential facts you need to know before you give your testimony or work on a deposition from the legal end.

1. Depositions are under oath.

A deposition might not take place in a room that looks like a courtroom, but that doesn’t mean that the testimony is not as valid as witness testimony given in a court of law. If you’re under oath, you’re under oath – in a deposition as well as a courtroom. If you’re a witness giving testimony, you’re legally obliged not to lie, or even to cover up the facts: you’re expected to tell the whole truth. Be sure to keep that in mind as you give your testimony.

2. Depositions often happen because of the opposition.

In any given court case, there are two sides to the story – when a lawyer is calling you to give testimony, it’s because they’re building their pre-courtroom case against someone. So if you’re being sued and the litigation goes far enough, you can expect to give a deposition. And the facts uncovered in the deposition will generally be used in the case against you. That doesn’t mean you should hide anything; instead you should be ready to answer anything.

3. Depositions can be good for the trial.

Because depositions occur before the main trial, they can often lead to a number of good things – settlement offers, settlement agreements, shortening the trial’s scope, etc. This is great if you’re the defendant and you need to find a speedy end to your particular case. Depositions often act as a great way to see just how much weight the current litigation has  and whether the case will be viable.

4. Deposition testimony can pop back up.

If your case does go to trial, don’t be surprised if the testimony you give at your deposition will later make an appearance – or even be read back to you – during the trial itself. This is a strategy often used by lawyers to highlight an inconsistency in your testimony – which is why you need to have your story straight and remember all the facts.

5. Consistency is key.

Following the above point, it’s important to remember that your deposition can be used later and your consistency will be a key component of your case. Your eyewitness testimony needs to be consistent in order to be taken seriously by a jury, should your case go to trial.

Suddenly you find yourself wanting to quit the company and start your own business using the knowledge you’ve learned. The problem? The agreement you just signed with the previous company prevents exactly that. Suddenly, you don’t feel so excited about your career anymore – you feel trapped. What can you do to get out of this situation and resolve the problem? The answer comes in knowing the true nature of non-compete forms.

As with most legal issues stemming from a contract problem, you’ll first want to get a copy of the non-compete form – if you don’t already have one – and fully review its language. Is the language about branching off on your own ironclad? Are there any potential “outs” that would give you carte blanche to do so? For example, some contracts will simply stipulate that you wait six months after leaving a company – you may simply need to find a way to feed yourself for those six months before you fully branch off.

Of course, not every non-compete form will have that kind of clause in it. If that’s the case, and you really need to get out of this form, you might have to work with the other party directly in order to come to some sort of mutual agreement.

For other people, signing a non-compete form is not a big deal, especially if the non-compete form has an expiration date on it. They can simply work for the company that hired them and continue their career development in that way. It may never be their wish to ever compete with their existing company in any way.

But if you do need to fight a non-compete form in order to branch out on your own – and you have few other options -  you may simply find that non-compete forms are difficult to enforce in a court of law. For example, if you do not use any information you learned at your old job to give another company an unfair advantage, you’ll often find that the former company does not have very solid grounds to get a court to enforce the contract. After all, the point of the non-compete form is to prevent this kind of unfair advantage. If that unfair advantage doesn’t exist, it could be argued that the non-compete form has been honored.

Whatever you sign, be sure that you know what you’re getting into before you sign it. A company will tell you that “this is just a simple form,” but you need to make sure you understand its complexities if you plan on signing and then honoring it.

If you want to make sure you keep your pets’ company after a divorce, here are just a few things you must know:

Pet custody can be hotly contested. When you begin a divorce, it’s tempting to believe that you’ll receive the benevolence of your spouse simply because you always viewed yourself as being more attached to the pets. But the ferocity of pet custody contests might just surprise you. After all, if your relationship has disintegrated to the point of divorce, it might follow that you really didn’t know how attached your spouse is to the pets – or simply how much they want you not to have them. It sounds outrageous, but it happens often.

Shared custody is one possible outcome. Chances are you’ve already researched a lot about shared child custody – when the children spend time with you, and when they don’t – but it may surprise you to learn that shared custody can happen for pets, as well. This is especially true if the pet custody issue is a hotly contested one, as mentioned above, and the two sides are unable to come to a complete resolution. The only option at that point may be simply to split the difference and share the pets.

Pet custody is often about negotiation, not a court decision. While courts may get involved in order to resolve the profound disputes over child custody, many courts leave it to the couples themselves to decide what to do about the pets. This means that if you want custody of your pets, you’re going to need to somehow convince your spouse to allow this to happen as part of the divorce arrangement.

Custody can depend on ownership before marriage. If you two purchased or adopted pets during your marriage, it may make the issue of who gets the pets a little more muddy. But if a pet was already owned by one party before the marriage, it may make it more likely that that same party will retain custody after the marriage is legally dissolved.

Lawyers can help negotiate. With the courts generally staying out of the pet custody battle, one role of your divorce lawyer will be to negotiate a pet custody arrangement between you and the other party. A good divorce lawyer will be able to move things around in the arrangement in order to make a proposal the other party will accept; a great divorce lawyer might just be able to get you a little bit of everything.

Legally renting out a room, of course, is much more desirable – and it’s probably not as difficult as you think. But before you do, you’ll want to make sure you prevent any potential problems by checking out the legality in your own home and your own area. Here’s a guide to making sure you dot all of the I’s and cross all of the T’s.

Check Your Local Laws

While we could give advice all day long about the best practices for maintaining a sublet space, the most important thing – and something we cannot do for you – is to make sure that in your property, this is legal. If you live in a house, you may want to check local ordinances. If you live in an apartment complex, you’ll want to check your lease. Whatever paperwork pertains to your situation, read it.

Of course, the law may be flexible. You may find that it is not legal to sublet a room if you have X, but it is legal to do it if you have Y.  In this case, you may simply need to make some modifications to the living area to make sure that it’s up to the proper standards. Or you may to sublet a different room than you initially intended on renting out, forcing you to move some things around in your house. Whatever is the case, be willing to adapt to the circumstances.

Codes, Ordinances, and Agreements

Next, you’ll want to remember that you’re going to undertake the role of landlord – so you’d better act like it. The living space you provide needs to be up to code, live up to the standards of local ordinances, and the agreements you sign should give you the legal grounding to begin this subletting process.

This will require more research on your part, but it’s all part of the preparation of subletting effectively. Without this phase of the process, you might be subject to a number of punishments for various agreement violations.

Making it Happen Legally

It’s tempting to skirt the law and simply make an agreement in an “underground economy,” as it were, but the risks and potentially bad consequences are too great for you to consider this as a serious option.

Once you’ve taken all precautions and have adjusted your agreement properly, you’re ready to legally sublet a room in your house or apartment. From this point, you should simply be able to enjoy the extra company and the extra income you receive as a result of your hard work – and you don’t have to worry about someone suddenly putting a stop to this excellent arrangement.

To arm you with that information, we’re presenting this brief guide to the ins and outs of alimony payments.

First Things First: Why Does Alimony Exist?

When you get divorced and split up property, assets, and even custody of your children, it may seem like things are totally equal – or at least as equal as they’re ever going to be. The need for one party to make regular payments to the other party seems superfluous; why should they deserve money that’s earned after the divorce took place?

The reasoning of many divorce courts is that during a marriage, one spouse might sacrifice certain things to contribute to the earning potential of the other spouse. For example, if both parties work together to send the husband through college, his increased earning potential is something that he can use to his advantage after the divorce, even though the earning potential was increased as the result of the work of both husband and wife.

Whether or not you agree with this philosophy, it’s the reasoning for alimony. And it’s the reason you may find yourself in the predicament you’re currently in.

When Alimony is Set

You may feel that you’ve gotten off with a good deal when your alimony payment is set to a token amount of money – say, one dollar per year. But having alimony payments there in the first place may be precedent to increase the alimony payments later on; the mere existence of the payments already suggests to future courts that the reasoning was justified.

In other cases, judges will simply not set an alimony payment because they aren’t awarding alimony to either side.

Generally, the thing to understand is that alimony is not administered as punishment, but because of a perceived inequity in the results of the marriage between both of the parties.

Fighting an Alimony Award

Generally, there is little you can do once alimony has been set. You can appeal the divorce itself (and therefore the alimony that was award in the divorce), but there is not much chance you’ll be able to take away the court’s decision to set an alimony payment separately.

The better educated you are about alimony payments, the better you’ll be able to handle the prospect of one when it’s time for your settlement to be announced. Divorce is a difficult thing; it’s not surprising that its effects are, too. If you’re still in an opportunity to save your marriage or prepare for a divorce, make sure that you’re ready to fight to keep all of your earnings.

For example, it’s not legal to force someone to sign a contract at gunpoint; if it was, then without the idea of “signing under duress,” someone could hypothetically get anyone to sign anything. Instead, the justice system recognizes that some contracts are not valid because of the state of mind that the signee was under when signing. Let’s examine this idea further.

Defining Duress

In the previous “held-at-gunpoint” example, the idea of duress was taken to an extreme. The actual definition of duress is simply a measurement of coercion or force not necessarily because a weapon has been drawn. Any type of threats, intended harm or stress put upon a person in order to get them to perform an act they would not normally perform would be considered duress. A contract is not validly signed unless it is signed by each participant’s own accord and own free will.

This can lead to some loose definitions of duress, of course, but any type of coercion placed on a contract can indeed render it invalid; after all, that allows one person to take advantage of another person against their will. But proving that one was under duress is another problem entirely.

Proving Duress

In evaluating the status of a contract, of course, one cannot simply render it null and void by claiming that it was signed under duress. It has to be proven that the contract was signed under duress. How is this done? As is the case across U.S. law, there are a number of ways to prove that something occurred. One is eyewitness testimony, which would go a long way in showing that you were indeed under duress when signing a contract. Another is to consider a body of evidence, such as examining the relationship of the two parties and the previous contracts they’ve signed. All of this evidence can pile up in order to make a convincing case that the contract should indeed be void.

Furthermore, any written proof of harassment or threats about the contract would also constitute solid evidence of duress. If you were assaulted over a contract dispute, it’s important to have photographic evidence of the injuries that were sustained as a result.

It’s not always easy to keep the law in mind as you live your day to day life. But if you know that something is happening to you, it’s important that you keep all forms of tangible evidence handy in case a problem like signing a contract under duress does arise. The better equipped you keep yourself, the more the courts will be able to help you.