Attorney Fee Requests in Divorce, Legal Separation or Paternity Cases in San Diego Superior Court: 2014

Yes. Either party make ask for attorney fees in a legal separation, divorce or paternity in a pending family law case in San Diego Superior Court. A motion for attorney fees, called a Request for Order, is necessary and there are other mandatory pleadings as well. Attorney fee requests can also be made at trial and other hearings.

Yes. A fully completed income and expense declaration is required for all attorney fee motions under California Rules of Court: Rule 5.427. This specifies the specific requirements of which part are used for this article. An income and expense declaration is required both of the party requesting the attorney fee order as well as when responding to an attorney fee order. In addition, the income and expense declaration must be current which is no more than 90 days from the date of the hearing. In addition, the declaration must be filled out so that the Judge has all the information from the declaration including all income and all expenses. California Rules of Court [Rule 5.427] is applicable to attorney's fees and costs which is based on financial need per the following California Family Law Code Sections: Section 2030; Section 2032; Section 3121; Section 3557. Attorney's fee are requests by either party, should be listed on the Income and Expense Declaration. This information should include the amount in savings, certificate of deposits, checking accounts, credit union accounts and money market account among others. In addition, the income and expense declaration should include the amount of attorney's fees incurred to date, currently owed to date, and the source of money used to pay such fees whether a credit card or borrowed or from savings or other source.

There are many different types of attorney fee orders. The most common are attorney fee orders based on need and ability and disparity of income. Some attorney fee requests are for sanctions for conduct or discovery or prevailing party. The Judge may, or may not, hear oral testimony on the issue of attorney fees. The Judge may also order attorney fees at the request for order or reserve on attorney fees until a later time period. If support is an issue, many of the San Diego Superior Court Judges look to post disparity of income after the support order and not before. As the Disso Master program [California State Child Support Software] will {in many cases} almost equalize the net incomes of the parties with a child and spousal support order, the incomes may be relatively equal after support payment. If the attorney fee disparity of income is viewed pre payment of support, then this simply looks to how much each party earns.

The law firm of Doppelt and Forney, APLC can assist with attorney fee requests both for the requesting and non requesting party. Feel free to discuss the attorney fee issue, as well as any other family law issue, at your confidential and free in-person or virtual consultation up to 30 minutes in their law office.