- DivorceJudith Kaluzny has practiced divorce and family law in Fullerton, County of Orange, for over 25 years. She began learning to mediate in 1986 and has been trained as a mediator in the best programs, more than 100 hours.
- Child SupportThat “custody” is a fighting word one can see from every newspaper headline using it–it always goes with “battle.” The family law killings almost always occur in custody cases. But in order to get a divorce in California, one must check a box asking that “custody” be “awarded” (after the battle, presumably) to one or both parents. And two other words go with “custody” — “win” and “lose.” Then one must also check a box referring to “visitation.” How insulting is that? If you do not have “custody” of your own children, you have “visitation.” And if you do not live full time with your children, child support agencies refer to you as an “absent” parent. One can see how the “culture of divorce” is one of aggravation and the fostering of hostilities.
- Child Custody and VisitationAn attempt was made in 1989 to eliminate those inflammatory and possessory words, custody and visitation, from the California Family Code. There was Senate Bill 1306 and Assembly Bill 1612. Jay Folberg, professor emeritus and former dean of the University of San Francisco School of Law, wrote SB 1306.
- PaternityAn international and interdisciplinary organization of judges, psychologists, lawyers and others, The Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, has declared the treatment of children in family courts a “public health crisis.” Founded in California in 1963 to improve the lives of children and families through the resolution of family conflict,.the California chapter recently noted in a “Declaration of Public Health Crisis” that an estimated half of the state’s children, or 4,775,939, have been touched by or involved in the court system as a result of their parents’ actions–separation, divorce, guardianships, paternity actions, domestic violence, dependency actions. One of every two children they estimate, are likely to be involved in a family court case.
- Guardianship
- Spousal SupportIn a litigated divorce, husband said he would file bankruptcy. On request, the judge ordered spousal support for wife to be paid by husband until she had the community debt–for which she alone could be held responsible–entirely paid off. Spousal support is not dischargeable in bankruptcy.
- MurderAnd the poignant article in December about the woman recovering still from the murder of her three children by their father six years ago. We remember the horror of the boy set afire by his father in a motel in 1983, recalled last November as one of “The 50 Most Notorious Crimes in Orange County History.”