Orange County Family Lawyers

The family law attorneys at Wilkinson & Finkbeiner, LLP represent men and women throughout Orange County in all aspects of family law.

Experienced Southern California Family Law Attorney

Protect your rights by engaging an experienced, compassionate, and aggressive family law attorney to represent you in your family law matter.  Our attorneys will provide you with professional legal representation in a cost-effective manner to successfully accomplish your goals.

We provide the following family law services:

• Divorce – Dissolution of marriage and domestic partnership dissolution
• Legal Separation – Separation of finances while remaining married
• Child Custody and Child Visitation – Involves both legal and physical custody, mediation, move-aways, enforcement, post-judgment modification and creating parenting plans tailored to meet the best interests of children
• Child Support and Spousal Support – Includes temporary (Pendente lite) guideline child support, child support modification, temporary spousal support, permanent spousal support, and modification or termination of spousal support
• Pre-Nuptial and Post-nuptial agreements – Involves all aspects of a premarital agreement, postmarital agreement for marriage as well as cohabitation agreements and domestic partnership agreements
• Paternity suits – Issues involved with children born to unmarried parents, paternity tests, child support, custody, visitation, name change, costs of pregnancy, and wage garnishments
• Division of Marital Property – Involves division of community property, separate property, reimbursement, Epstein credits, business valuations, and quasi-community property estate
• Domestic Partnerships – Includes dissolution (termination) of domestic partnerships, spousal support, separate property, quasi-marital property, adoptions, and custody or visitation
• Post-Divorce (Post-Judgment) Modifications or Enforcement – Involves post judgment modifications of child support, child custody or child visitation with changed circumstances as well as enforcement of support and collection of support arrears
• Adoptions – Involves parental consent to a stepparent adoption, step-parent adoptions, petition for freedom of parental custody, abandonment, and name changes
• Annulments or Nullity – Involves annulment of marriage because such marriage was void voidable based on fraud, incapacity, bigamy as well as putative spouse issues
• Guardianships – Involve guardianship of the person or guardianship of the estate, or both.  Co-guardians can also apply for orders concerning the best interests of a child or power to manage money, obtain healthcare or insurance coverage
• Domestic violence and restraining orders - Involves temporary restraining orders (TRO) and protective orders (PO), emergency protective orders (EPO) based on either physical abuse, emotional abuse, harassment, an arrest, jail, stalking or other abusive behavior
• Department of Child Support Service (DCSS) Family Support division  (FSD), or the County, deals with child support, child support arrears, collection of past due child support, suspension of driver’s license for unpaid support, bank account levy and other child support matters.

Dissolution of Marriage and Domestic Partnership

Dissolution, or divorce, legally ends a marriage.  A divorce proceeding will resolve issues such as the division of assets and debts, child custody and visitation and child and spousal support.  A final judgment of dissolution will also restore the parties to their status as single persons, once the mandatory six month waiting period has expired.  California law affords qualified domestic partners with many of the rights and obligations of married persons.  As a result, many of the fundamental issues that may be relevant to a divorce may also be relevant to the dissolution of a registered domestic partnership.  For more on dissolution and divorce proceedings, click here. 

Legal Separation

A legal separation resolves matters such as the division of assets and debts just as in a divorce, however, the parties retain their status as married persons.  This is an option if you want to live separately from your spouse, but also want to stay legally married. 

Annulment

An annulment occurs where there is a void or voidable marriage. California law only allows for an annulment in narrow circumstances, such as where there is fraud or force, undue influence, lack of capacity, bigamy, incest or physically incapability.  Our knowledgeable family law attorneys can explain the circumstances under which you may seek an annulment and discuss whether an annulment is an option in your case.

Paternity

A paternity case involves cases in which children are born to unmarried parents and can arise where there is uncertainty or disagreement regarding the identity of the child’s biological father.  A paternity case can be initiated by either the mother or father.  Parties may file a paternity suit to establish the father’s legal obligation to provide child support and/or to establish the father’s legal right to custody and visitation. 

A paternity judgment in such a case will establish a legal relationship between the child and his or her father.  Until a child custody and/or visitation ordered is entered by the court, there is usually no recognized legal mechanism for unmarried persons to enforce custodial rights.  A paternity action may also involve a party’s request to change the legal name of the minor child and/or obtain reimbursement for pregnancy costs.

In addition to obtaining orders for child custody and support, typical issues involved in a paternity action include obtaining a paternity test, obtaining a judgment of paternity or setting aside a default judgment of paternity through either Family Court or Department of Child Support Services.  Finally, a parentage action can be used to change the name of a child on a birth certificate. 

Our highly experienced Orange County paternity attorneys can assist mothers and potential fathers in all types of paternity action.  Whether you are seeking a paternity action to obtain child support, establish custody and visitation rights or to avoid paying child support for a child you do not believe is your biological child, we can help.  For more information on paternity cases, click here, and also review child custody information here.

Child custody and Visitation

Child custody and visitation issues arise in divorce matters, paternity actions, adoption cases and guardianship matters.  There is also a difference between legal and physical custody.  The parent or parents with legal custody make decisions concerning a child’s health, safety and welfare.  This includes decisions regarding education, school and extracurricular activities, religion and religious practices and medical decisions.  Physical custody refers to the child’s primary residence and day-to-day child sharing arrangement. As experienced Orange County child custody attorneys, we will protect your parental rights by seeking to establish frequent and continuing contact between a parent and child in accordance with the child’s best interest.

The family law attorneys at Wilkinson & Finkbeiner, LLP represent men and women throughout Orange County in all aspects of family law.  Protect your rights by engaging an experienced, compassionate and aggressive family law attorney to represent you.  Our attorneys will provide you with professional legal representation in a cost-effective manner to successfully accomplish your goals. 

Contact a Southern California Family Law Attorney

For further information or to discuss your family law matter, we invite you to schedule a confidential consultation with one of our experienced Orange County family law attorneys by calling us at (949) 955-9155. The parking and confidential consultation are free of charge.

DISCLAIMER: The content of this website is intended as legal information only and should not be construed as legal advice.  The content of this website is a summary of the law only.  It may not contain a complete statement of the law.  You should contact an attorney if you seek specific legal advice or assistance.