Larkspur, California, Family Law Attorney
For families with complex estates and property issues, family problems can become an all-consuming legal matter. At Laing Law Offices in Marin County, California, we have the experience, knowledge and global perspective necessary to effectively guide individuals, domestic partners, families and blended families in addressing their comprehensive family law needs.
For legal advice and representation tailored to meet your individual goals and objectives, contact us today for a confidential discussion of your family law concerns.
Skilled California Divorce Support
Laing Law Offices concentrates on property rights, property division and support issues. We refer custody litigation to other attorneys and experts who devote their practices to those areas. However, we regularly negotiate and litigate child and spousal support, including temporary and permanent support orders. We also draft insurance funded trusts to insure that support payments continue uninterrupted following the death of the payor spouse.
- Emotional and Business Components of Divorce: Divorce is one of the most painful and difficult things for anyone to go through. Separating lives is emotionally painful and legally complex. It is also one of the most important and largest value business transactions of most people's lives. At our firm, a skilled family law attorney will help you through your divorce with consideration for both your emotions and rights concerning the property, money and support you are entitled to receive. We pay the same attention to obligations, debts and taxes, with the aim of insuring that you pay only your fair share of them.
- Mediation, Collaboration, Negotiation and Litigation: At Laing Law Offices we favor mediation and other alternate dispute resolution methods, including negotiation and collaboration, over litigation. Litigation can heighten animosity and delay resolution of divorce cases. However, sometimes there is no other way to resolve one or more key issues. In those cases we will litigate to enforce and preserve your interests.
- Pre-Divorce Planning - Automatic Temporary Restraining Orders: In California, pre-divorce planning is particularly important because automatic temporary restraining orders (ATROs) go into effect when a petition for dissolution of marriage (the name for "divorce" in California), legal separation or nullity of marriage is filed by the petitioner and served on the other party, called the respondent. ATROs restrict and prohibit transfers of property - including your separate property - changes in estate plans, changes in insurance designations and expenditures that are not made in the ordinary course of business, without the prior written consent of your soon-to-be ex-husband or ex-wife or a prior court order. We provide pre-divorce services to help you avoid the pitfall of the ATROs, and to help you plan and organize for your upcoming divorce.
Prenuptial Agreements: At Laing Law Offices, before-marriage planning includes prenuptial agreements or premarital agreements, as well as trusts, limited partnerships, limited liability companies and other entities, to deal with properties jointly acquired before marriage or establishment of a registered domestic partnership. These are very powerful agreements that are negotiated by the parties at "arms-length", like a business agreement between strangers, because the parties are, by definition, not married. However, these agreements must be carefully drafted to insure that they remain enforceable. We have successfully negotiated many prenuptial and premarital agreements. If you are contemplating the protection of your best interests before marriage, please contact our office for a consultation.
Postnuptial Agreements: Also known as postmarital agreements, these agreements are used to control and characterize assets during marriage, frequently because of issues that arise after parties marry. In California, spouses are fiduciaries of each other and each owes the other the highest duty of care. Consequently, postnuptial or postmarital agreements, where one spouse gives up a property right without receiving sufficient consideration in return, are subject to being set aside. These agreements are often employed in conjunction with coordinated estate plans to provide for a fair division of assets in second or subsequent marriages:
- As a divorce substitute where neither party wishes to marry another, these agreements can serve as a substitute for divorce property divisions, and prevent a Judgment of Divorce or legal separation from causing an ill or uninsurable party to become ineligible to continue coverage under existing policies.
- When households are combined with one spouse selling their residence and relocating to the other spouse's residence, an agreement can insure both spouses are treated fairly when one of them dies, or if their marriage ends in divorce.
- Fair treatment of the surviving spouse by children of the deceased spouse can be greatly assisted with a properly drafted postnuptial or postmarital agreement that is coordinated with the parties' respective estate plans.
Cohabitation Agreements, Non-Marital Agreements and House Trusts: Unmarried couples who live together and acquire property together fall outside of the Family Law Code in California. When trouble strikes such relationships, if the parties have no agreement concerning jointly owned assets, general civil law concerning partnerships, joint ventures and real property govern their rights. The parties have only narrowly defined property rights that are frequently uncertain and impossibly expensive to enforce. At Laing Law Offices, we use cohabitation agreements to govern day-to-day living issues, trusts to hold and govern rights to important properties such as jointly owned residences, and coordinate estate plans to insure that no issues concerning jointly owned assets and obligations remain following the death of one or both parties. Buy-out, sale and other provisions are clearly set out in these agreements and trusts, and limited liability companies and corporations are used to hold joint business ventures and govern their distribution if a non-marital relationship breaks down or terminates.
Domestic Partnership Agreements and Same-Sex Marital Agreements: While there is a well developed law in California concerning registered domestic partnerships, they are not yet recognized by the federal government or the IRS. The same holds true for same-sex marriages. Consequently, these agreements have much in common with cohabitation agreements and non-marital agreements today. However, there are also benefits available to registered domestic partners and spouses in a same sex marriage that should be included in any agreements affecting either of them.
Contact Us Today:
Laing Law Offices understands the interrelationship between the laws that govern marital, domestic partnership and non-marital relationships. Contact us for a consultation with an experienced California estate planning and divorce attorney concerning your relationship needs.
LAING LAW OFFICES
100 Larkspur Landing Circle, Suite 110
Larkspur, Ca 94939
T: (415) 461-3133
F: (415) 461-4022
At Laing Law Offices, we serve clients in Larkspur, Corte Madera, San Rafael, Mill Valley, Sausalito, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Novato, and communities throughout the Bay Area, including those located in Marin County, San Francisco County, Sonoma County, Alameda County, and Contra Costa County, California.
