San Jose Family Law Blog

San Jose residents who are getting a divorce will be able to either have a contested or uncontested divorce. We at the Law Office of Lily L. Huang will explain how these options can affect child custody matters.

With uncontested divorce, matters of child custody will be figured out between you and your spouse. You can rely on a third party mediator as well to help things out. You will also need to figure out things like holiday schedules, visitation schedules, and even child support payment plans. Because you must do all of this without court intervention, it can be tricky to accomplish. However, it will allow you to bypass a lot of the complex and expensive portions of legal battles.

Choosing to end a marriage is one of the most difficult decisions anyone can make. While your divorce may seem to bring up unique challenges, you are likely not alone. In fact, any married individual has roughly a 40% chance of going through a divorce. How you choose to approach the end of your marriage, though, may make a big difference. 

Gone are the days when divorcing couples automatically headed for the courtroom. Nowadays, a growing number of individuals rely on mediation to wrap up their marriages. As you may suspect, though, mediation is not right for everyone. If you notice any of the following four signs, mediation may not be a productive way to end your marriage: 

If you and your high-asset California spouse will soon head to divorce court, you should consider the possibility that (s)he may have one or more offshore accounts of which you are unaware. An article in the Washington Post describes how vindictive or greedy spouses often use an offshore bank account as one means by which to hide assets from their spouse during a divorce.

As you likely already know, California is a community property state, meaning that all marital property accumulated by you and your spouse during your marriage belongs to the two of you equally and must be split up that way when you divorce. But if you do not know that your spouse has put money into an offshore account; i.e., one located in a non-U.S. country, your chances of getting the marital property to which you are entitled decrease substantially.

When parents file for divorce, the stress can be high for everyone involved, including children. Divorce is often an emotional and potentially overwhelming process, as parents split marital property, determine child custody and negotiate issues involved in moving from a traditional family to a one-parent household. Marriages involving negativity and fighting can also be hard on children. Studies show that it may be best for children to grow up in a divorced family rather than a toxic environment where parents do not get along. Studies also show that the manner in which parents end their marriage may have an effect on children's’ stress levels.

Mediation allows parents to settle their divorce out of a traditional courtroom environment. With a third-party mediator present, both parties negotiate the terms of their divorce settlement. One of the benefits of mediation allows couples to come up with terms of the divorce that may otherwise not have been available if they had allowed a judge to determine the terms of the decree. In many cases, parents who go through the mediation process end on better terms and are able to experience a healthier relationship post-divorce than they would have if they had undergone courtroom litigation.