Robert Brett Burch’s Answers

The general rules in family law are that all assets and liabilities accrued during marriage are community property or community obligations. To the extent the band does well, the community will benefit and to the extent liabilities are accrued you will be responsible for those as well and creditors and go after community assets to satisfy your husband's share of the liabilities. You may want to consider a post nuptial agreement.

Be careful about replacing your lawyer too many times. The courts are not supposed to consider it but in the back of their mind may do so. All of that said, if you do not have a good working relationship with your attorney you may have no choice but to change but be very careful in your selection of your next attorney.

If by file documents you mean, go to the court to file documents then yes anybody can do that for you. However, many people confuse the term file and serve. If you are asking if anybody can serves documents, then the answer is that only persons that are over the age of18 and not a party to the action can serve documents.

Contempts are very technical matters. You cannot just address them at the next hearing. CP must have proper notice in a new charging document (new OSC for contempt).

The soonest you can be divorced is 6 months after service of the divorce petition. However, you can resolve all your differences and come to a final agreement, which can be filed with the Court, well before 6 months have elapsed. The law, however, requires you wait at least 6 months before you can get remarried.

You are correct. The California rules of court do not provide for demurrers on family law. Some civil rules are, however, applied, such as motions to dismiss for failure to meet your burden after presentation of your evidence on your OSC so be careful.

There are procedures for guardianship that are available in California where you could attempt to obtain guardianship over your grandaughter. The problem is whether California has jurisdiction. Was a cutoy case open in California before the daughter was sent to Tennessee? Did your son remain in California? If so, California may still have jurisdiction under the rules of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act. If not, jurisdiction may be in Missouri or some other state. You...

Unless you agreed in a Stipulated Judgment to child support past the age of 18 or 19 and graduated from high school then you are not entitled to child support. The one exception is if your child is diabled.

You start the process by filing a Petition for Dissolution. If you believe he earns more than you then the next step is to engage in discovery to obtain information regarding his income such as document requests; interrogatories; and subpoenas. You can then file an Order To Show Cause seeking custody and visitation orders; child and spousal support orders; and attorney's fees payment from him.

You have no obligation to file legal papers. There is no requirement to file paperwork related to abandonment of the residence. However, to avoid future financial / legal issues, I would have something drafted and sent to her memorializing the fact of the separation and having it served on her by a registered process server. This step is not necessary but it is a small cost that could save you a lot of headache and litigation down the road if she ever challenges the fact that you are separated.