Poway, California

Poway is a city that was incorporated in 1980, however, is in San Diego County and patrolled by the San Diego County Sherifff or law enforcement and not the San Diego Police Department. The Poway Unified School District which is in San Diego County, is well regarded as one of the best educational school districts and is sought after by many parents for their children's education through public schools. The Poway Unified School District has grown over the years to include kindergarten, elementary schools, middle schools and over thirty high schools. There is a Kiwanis Club and Rotary as well as many other civic organizations. Other areas in Poway include Lake Poway, the Blue Sky Ecological Reserve, and areas with many other activities. Poway's nickname is the "City in the Country" and it embodies both.

Our firm practices family law in San Diego. This term encompasses divorces that are contested and uncontested, legal separation, alimony, annulment, matters involving paternity, child support, child custody, child visitation, temporary restraining orders, division of real estate, household furniture, jewelry, antiques, coin collections, vehicles, trailers, boats, cash, credit union accounts, savings accounts, checking accounts, deposit accounts, tax refunds, life insurance with cash surrender [whole life policy], secured notes, mutual funds, stocks, bonds, retirement accounts, pension accounts, profit sharing, vested and non vested stock options, restricted stock units, annuities, IRA, 401K, 403B, STRS, PERS, military retirement, accounts receivable, unsecured notes, partnerships, business interests and any other assets as well as division of student loans, taxes owed, support arrearage, secured loans, unsecured loans, credits cards and any other debts. We also prepare judgment pleadings and marriage settlement agreements.

One issue which many Poway residents will have in their pending family law case is division of debt. The standard rule is that all debts which are incurred from date of marriage to date of separation are divided one half each however, as with many areas of the law, there are exceptions. First, for student loans, these are normally not divided one half each unless the loan is over 10 years old during marriage duration and the community has benefitted from the education of the spouse. Also, gambling debts may not be divided equally. One common question is: “If I did not know [or did not approve] of debt, do I still have to pay half. Unfortunately, the answer is almost uniformly “yes”. Having said this, of course, a careful analysis of all debt division needs to be done.

While Poway is not part of San Diego City, the residents do use the San Diego County Court House system. For Poway residents, this includes the San Diego Superior Court House located at 220 West Broadway and the Family Law Court House located at 1555 Sixth Avenue.

Doppelt and Forney, APLC, has clients who are in Poway. Our law office is in Rancho Bernardo which borders Poway. Our office is only minutes from all of Poway and we can be reached either by the local roads or the Interstate. Our law firm is in the Clock Tower Office Complex on the 1-15 at the Bernardo Center Drive exit. There is free parking and also an elevator. Our limited liability partnership is registered with the State Bar of California and we are members of the San Diego County Bar Association. We are also members of the San Diego County Better Business Bureau. Our office is open from Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm and closed for all legal holidays. We look forward to meeting you personally to discuss your legal matter.