Legal Question in Family Law in California

I'm assuming the custodial parent is seeking or has an order for child support. If not, then there is no issue for the court to deal with. If there is a support order or a request for one, it is pretty much automatic that a non-working parent, whether custodial or not, can be ordered to seek work. Only where they cannot work for some reason would a seek-work order not be issued. Where it gets tricky is if you get into a dispute over whether they are looking hard enough or working up to their earning capacity. In that case you would have to conduct a vocational evaluation to establish their actual earning capacity and persuade the judge to treat that as their income instead of their actual income.