Frequently Asked Questions

1. What geographical areas do you serve?

We serve San Luis Obispo and Northern Santa Barbara counties.

2. How much do you charge for an INITIAL consultation?

We provide one-half hour of free consultation.  At the end of the one-half hour we decide whether we can help you and, if so, what we will do for you and how much we will charge for that service.  You will not be billed for our services until we reach an agreement on fees.

3. What are your rates?

We have no set rates.  Our rates depend upon the situation.  We try to be flexible and try to work with our clients in providing representation they can afford.  That includes charging a flat fee for our work if the case is a simple one.

4. How long have you been practicing family law?

Attorney Angel R. Cabrera has been practicing family law since 1997.

5. Do I have to take time off from work to meet with you?

No.  We pride ourselves in meeting with our clients on weekends or on week days after work hours.  That way you don’t have to miss work and you don’t have to explain to your employer or co-employees why you’re missing work.  Your personal business remains personal.

6. What are the main issues that will be considered as part of my divorce?

A divorce case is essentially the court’s management of the end of your marriage.  So the court will deal with: 1. terminating your legal status as a married person (i.e., “untying” the wedding knot); 2. deciding who will get legal and physical custody of your children as well as setting a visitation schedule; 3. setting child and spousal support; 4. dividing the assets that you’ve put together during the marriage and the debts that you’ve incurred during the same time; and 5. deciding whether one party will contribute towards the other party’s attorney fees.  (All of these issues are discussed in greater detail in the “Family Law: An Overview” section of this website.)

7. I might have to pay for my spouse’s attorney?

Yes, family law is unique in that the courts want the parties to compete on a “level playing field”.  I.e., if one party is earning much more than the other, the courts don’t want the wealthier one to hire an attorney who will take advantage of the poorer one who can’t afford any attorney at all.  Instead, the court will order the wealthier party to give the poorer party money to hire an attorney for himself or herself.

8. But if my children are with me 50%  of the time then I won’t have to pay child support, right?

This is one of the biggest misconceptions in family law.  The party who earns the most, usually the father, figures if he has the children with him 50%  of the time, then he won’t have to pay child support.  It doesn’t work that way.  Child support in the State of California is calculated by a computer program and how often your child is with you (it’s called “time share”) is just one of the factors that the program takes into account.  Child support will also depend primarily upon how much each party earns and less so on such things as your tax filing status, who will claim the children as an exemption on his or her tax returns, how much you pay in property taxes and a handful of other factors.

9. Do I have to prove that my husband or wife has been unfaithful before I can get a divorce?

This is the second biggest misconception about family law, that you have to prove that your “soon to be ex-spouse” was unfaithful or prove some other reason for ending the marriage.  Now there are only two basic grounds for filing a divorce -  “irreconcilable differences” and “incurable insanity”.  The second is self-explanatory.  The first is a catch all term for every other reason you might have for wanting to end your marriage.  In reality, the courts don’t care why you want to end your marriage,  However, be aware that the courts will care what type of person you are when it comes to setting custody and visitation.  The courts will favor the person who has a steady job, who has no criminal history, who doesn’t abuse drugs or alcohol and who isn’t emotionally or physically abusive over the person who has a problem with one or more of these things.

10. How much alimony will I  have to pay?

First things first: it’s not called “alimony” anymore.  It’s called “spousal support” and there’s two types.  There’s temporary spousal support which is paid while the case is pending and there’s permanent spousal support which is paid after the case has concluded.  Temporary spousal support is set the same way that child support is set, by a computer program.  Permanent spousal support is set by the judge who takes into account a number of different factors including the length of the marriage, whether one spouse gave  up a career so that the other spouse could get a professional education or training, the ages of the parties, and the standard of living the parties enjoyed during the marriage.  Temporary spousal support ends once permanent spousal support is set.  How long permanent spousal support will last is set by the court at the same time that the judge decides how much it will be.  Like so many things in family law, how long permanent spousal support will last depends upon the circumstances

11. How soon before I can get remarried?

The court can enter a status only judgment ending your marriage six months and one day after you serve your divorce petition on your husband or wife.  A status only judgment is just what it sounds like.  It’s a judgment which ends the marriage and has no other effect.  It doesn’t affect support or custody or any of the other issues we’ve discussed in these FAQ’s.  You can get a status only judgment by stipulation (a written agreement with your soon to be ex-husband or ex-wife) or by answering a few, easy questions in front of a judge.  A few documents are prepared by the attorneys as part of the agreement or after the question and answer period and, so long as the six months and one day have passed since service of your petition, you can get your divorce and be remarried.  But remember, the other issues will still have to be resolved.

12. Who gets the house?

This is one of the more complicated questions in family law, so all we can say here is “it depends”.  It depends upon which party has the ability to keep paying for the house after the marriage has ended.  It depends upon whether the party who wants to keep the house can qualify to refinance it and buy out the other spouse.  It depends upon whether there’s children of the marriage especially if one or more of them is a special needs child for whom moving might be very upsetting.  It depends upon whose name is on the title.  It depends upon whose money went to pay for the house (and/or improvements to the house) and where that money came from.

Deciding who gets the house is one issue where you will need good, legal advice to guide you and that’s where we come in.

13. How long should the case take?  Will my spouse and I have to go to court to end our marriage?

I’ve put these two questions together because the answer is the same for each one.  It all depends on the complexity of the issues in your marriage and how well you can work on resolving those issues by working with your spouse (with our guidance).  If the issues are simple (for example, you and your spouse had no children and you don’t own a house together) and you can work together in solving them then you might be able to end the marriage in a few months by entering into a simple agreement without going to trial.  On the other hand, if the issues are complex (for example, you have children, there are allegations of drug and physical abuse and  you own quite a number of assets together) and you and your spouse can’t stand one another, then the process will be difficult and it’s likely that you will end up in trial.

14. But what if I need help now?  Do I have to wait until trial?

No.  The courts recognize that you might need immediate help in managing the end of your marriage.  When you do, we’ll be able to file a Request for Orders, documents which request a court hearing and relief within a few weeks and even requests for Temporary Restraining Orders, documents which the court considers without a hearing and which request emergency relief within a few hours.  The relief you can ask for can include one or all of the issues listed above: child custody and visitation, support, the division of assets and debts and attorney fees.  So, if your spouse has just left you after emptying your bank accounts and taken the children with him/her, you can ask the court to issue support and custody and visitation orders to provide money for you to live on and to ensure that you’ll get to see the children while your case goes through the courts.  Or, if your spouse is threatening to take the children out of the state, we can get a Temporary Restraining Order (an emergency order) which says that your spouse can’t leave the county or the state without your written permission or a court order.