Orange County Divorce Lawyer Blog

According to Dina Lohan, her ex-husband, Michael Lohan, is a deadbeat dad.

"It's almost been a year without child support," Dina Lohan said after a closed door meeting with her ex-husband in Nassau County Family Court on Tuesday.

The parents of troubled starlet Lindsey Lohan have been squabbling over court-ordered child support payments. It's unclear how much Michael Lohan owes, but TMZ.com reported it was more than $15,000.

"I just want him to do the right thing. I just want him to take care of his kids," Dina Lohan said after the meeting. "This isn't about us. It's about his children."

"No one wants a war," she said. "I don't want to be here more than anyone else in this building. It's a very sad place."

Continue reading "Michael Lohan has not paid Child Support in Over a Year" »

Today, trial commenced in a case of a man accused of murdering his wife. Henry Lisowski is accussed of killing his wife, Rosa, over a child support dispute. The prosecution states that a child support dispute prompted the killing.

It has been reported that Henry Lisowski, who had repeatedly threatened to harm his estranged wife, was driven to kill her after she was awarded child support for the two young children they shared, a prosecutor told a jury Monday.

The wife, Rosa Lisowski, went missing about a month before an important court hearing in 2008, when a judge was to consider whether her husband would have to pay child support for the previous year and whether he had significantly underreported his income.

Her body was never found, but the prosecutor said yesterday that evidence presented in Henry Lisowski's trial would show that he killed her and dumped her body in a trash bin.

Continue reading "Trial Begins for a Husband accused of Killing Wife over Child Support Dispute" »

Do you have an existing California child support order in place? Have you been making payments towards that California child support obligation? Are you in arrears in your California child support payments? Do you need assistance in modifying your present obligation to an affordable monthly payment amount? If so, please consult an Orange County child support attorney to either modify your payment, bring your payments current and/or assist in resolving any existing child support arrears. Failure to make payments on an existing California child support order can cause conflict, problems and a potentially endless tangled relationship with the Department of Child Support Services. Other obstacles that may directly affect the obligor include the withholding of a driver's license or U.S. Passport and even jail time.

An article that was released today indicated that an illegal immigrant, who failed to pay child support, was sent to prison. A 33-year-old illegal immigrant was sentenced this week to four years in prison after failing to pay child support for two children he fathered with a Sheboygan woman, according to court records released Friday.

Continue reading "Failure to Pay Child Support could Result in Jail Time" »

It was reported earlier this week that Bristol Palin filed a Motion for Interim Child Support in the Alaska Superior Court. According to Alaska law, the non-custodial parent is obligated to provide child support up to 20% of the non-custodial parent's adjusted annual income (up to an annual income of $105,000). Bristol Palin is demanding that Levi Johnston pay her $1,750 per month in child support, retroactive to the birth of their son, Tripp, who was born on December 27, 2008. According to court documents filed, Bristol contends that Levi has pulled in "in excess of $105,000 in 2009 through various media interviews and modeling related activities."

Continue reading "Bristol Palin Seeks Interim Child Support from Levi Johnston" »

Changing work patterns and the economic downturn are creating new Southern California divorce issues - some of which would have been unheard-of even a short time ago. These highlight your need for an experienced Southern California spousal support attorney when you set out to negotiate the end of a marriage.

The idea of men receiving California spousal support (as alimony is known in California) from their ex-wives used to be virtually unheard-of. A divorce settlement requiring the actress Joan Collins to send her ex a monthly check made national headlines back in the 1980s. More recently, the actress Anne Heche publicly complained that she could no longer afford the $15,000 per month in spousal and child support she owes her ex-husband.

While it is still unusual for men to receive support when a marriage ends, the practice is becoming more common, and is certainly no longer confined to Hollywood celebrities. More and more marriages are two-income households. The economic downturn has made cases in which women, as a family's main breadwinner, are being asked to support their ex-husbands increasingly common. According to a recent report by ABC News around 13,000 American men now receive alimony payments from their ex-wives, up from about 7,000 in 1998.

California child support and California spousal support issues are often linked, which is why anyone considering a California divorce needs to begin the process by seeking out the services of an experienced California family law attorney.

Statistics published by the federal Department of Health and Human Services indicate that new requests for help collecting California child support were up 11.5% in the 2008 fiscal year. At the end of that period the government was still trying to enforce the collection of more than $19 billion in unpaid California child support.

Continue reading "California spousal support picture is changing" »