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The Los Angeles and Orange county courts have reopened.  Both counties require parties and their attorneys to wear masks when coming to court.  L.A. county has institutionalized the ability to appear remotely at a family law hearing.  The sole exception is cases handled through the Department of Child Support Services.  Although the court self help centers are closed, help and further updates are available online at lacourt.org http://lacourt.org or http://www.lacourt.org/newsmedia/ui/AccessLACourtYourWay.aspx  and the California courts Self help center https://www.courts.ca.gov/selfhelp.htm

Child custody mediations are conducted online also.  Information regarding phone and internet login information  is provided as part of the Request for Order or Notice of Hearing for a Restraining order.  You can also call us at (562) 598-7486 for a free 15 minute consultation.

In Orange County, family law judges have adopted multiple online platforms and some require personal appearances.  You need to check with individual court for the procedure.

Other than appearing in court. If you need to file documents or ask questions at the court clerks office (LA or Orange county) you should call first. (see the court website for phone numbers)

The Los Angeles County courts are now allowing scheduling of remote appearances in your Family Law, (Divorce, Domestic violence, Child custody and child support), proceeding. Both the public and their attorneys may schedule a Remote Family Law appearance as of August 17, 2020. To use this feature, if you do not have an attorney ; go to LACourt.org and click on Remote Appearances, located on the vertical bar on the right hand side. Here you will find a clickable link to LACourtConnect which will allow you to schedule a remote appearance. If you do have an attorney; the attorney can arrange both appearances. For now, unless your matter is a Restraining Order or Contempt, – you can only schedule a telephone appearance. If at the hearing you convince the judge that a video appearance is warranted, the matter will be continued and your next appearance will include video. The cost is $15 for an audio appearance or $23 for a video appearance. For people who are used to driving an hour to court and then paying $20 to park this will be welcome news. For those who were paying their attorney’s travel time to get to court; it is even more welcome.

Los Angeles Superior Court Family Law Courts Set to Reopen after Coronavirus Closure

When you heard that some businesses were being permitted to reopen amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, your first thought may have been your favorite dine-in restaurant.  However, your friendly neighborhood courthouse is also up and running, or at least well on the way to doing so.  The courts initially closed on March 23, 2020, more than two months ago, resulting in filing delays, increased processing times, and the rescheduling (and re-rescheduling) of various hearings on calendar.  As of June 5, 2020, Long Beach, Hollywood, Inglewood, Stanley Mosk, and Pasadena Courthouses are physically up and running, but only for emergency matters, like restraining orders.  The Clerk’s Office will reopen for regular matters on June 15, 2020, and court hearings are scheduled to resume on June 22, 2020.  

The court’s new Here for You | Safe for You program has issued various guidelines to keep visitors safe.  As might be expected from similar reopenings, these include wearing a mask or face covering at all times (though children age 3 and below, and people with documented medical exemptions and/or court-cleared disabilities are exempt from this requirement), and maintaining a six foot distance from non-household members.  The court notice detailing the reopening also mentioned that visitors who remove their masks or face coverings while at the courthouse will be asked to put them back on.  If they refuse to, they may be denied court services, have their hearings rescheduled, or asked to leave.  If they refuse to leave the courthouse, they will be escorted out by the Sheriff’s Department.  That said, the prospect of having their hearings rescheduled alone should be enough to convince people not to take their masks off, since rescheduling is generally associated with an additional wait time of at least one month (most likely several months).  That’s not good for anyone who needs their court orders updated now, or as soon as immediately practicable.  Court staff, too, will be donning masks; and courthouses have been decorated with posters reminding everyone of the new social distancing rules.  Although the notice indicates that paper masks will be available for visitors at courthouse entrances, it does not specify whether visitors will have to pay for them, or what each court’s supply of them is like, so it would be best to bring your own mask.  

Another change has to do with a visitor’s ability to simply walk into the courthouse (after passing the usual security check by the door) to conduct legal business.  The court is now requiring visitors to make appointments for service, a measure intended to reduce the number of people at the courthouse, and so the risk of transmission.  In other words, you can’t enter the Clerk’s Office or Self-Help Center without an appointment.  You also can’t look at electronic records at the Clerk’s Office kiosks without a reservation.  It’s worth noting, too, that the children’s waiting rooms are still closed, so arranging childcare before you go to court is advisable.  That said, you’re not entirely out of options.  You may file pleadings using the court’s File at Home form completion program or the physical dropbox on the courthouse steps (which is regularly checked by court staff); call the court clerks or self-help center for assistance; or consult with an attorney for more information.

The expression, “I want “full custody”,” is one of the most frequent requests I hear as a family law attorney from prospective clients. I’m not sure why this expression is so popular, as it is not used by California in defining the types of custody available. There are two types of custody in California; Legal and Physical. Each type of custody can be given jointly or solely to one parent. My assumption is, that when someone says they want full custody that this is a request for sole legal and physical custody with perhaps some visitation for the other parent.

Legal Custody

Legal custody is the ability to make decisions for a child in regards to health, schooling, religion and the like. Normally the court awards this jointly to both parents. Under joint legal custody; if the parents cannot resolve a disagreement any other way, they must bring the matter back to court. and if the parents disagree about schooling, medical concerns etc

Sometimes, because one parent lives a great distance away, is incarcerated or normally makes decisions and behaves in a fashion the court finds is antipathetic to the childs interests, the court will award sole legal custody to the other parent.

Physical Custody

Physical custody is normally defined as who the child lives with. If one parent has significant periods of custody then physical custody is usually joint. However this is not set in stone and a parent that has significant periods of custody may only be listed on the order as having visitation and conversely a parent listed on the order as having joint physical custody may in fact have limited visitation. The courts tend to go by the actual time the child spends with each parent rather then the “sole” or “label”.

Beginning in 2020 Domestic Partnerships in California are now available as an alternative to marriage to opposite sex couples. Previously, this was only available to same sex couples and only available to opposite sex couples over the age of sixty-two