California Splits Custody Into Two Categories California law recognizes two distinct types of custody that operate independently of each other. Legal custody governs who has the right to make major decisions about a child’s health, education, and welfare, while physical […]

A recent case out of Southern California has renewed public attention on how surrogacy and custody law overlap. When a state agency removes children over abuse concerns, the legal path forward becomes layered and slow. For California families, the story […]

When parents in California live in different cities – whether from the start of a custody case or after one parent relocates – the court’s analysis shifts in ways that affect parenting time, decision-making authority, and the child’s day-to-day schedule. […]

If a divorce is on the horizon close to a tenth wedding anniversary, it’s common to hear that hitting the ten-year mark changes everything about spousal support. Like most things in family law, that’s partly true and partly an oversimplification. […]

Blended families are everywhere. Roughly half of new marriages in the United States involve at least one spouse who’s been married before, and millions of households now include stepparents, stepchildren, and half-siblings under one roof. What often gets overlooked, though, […]

Divorce is one of the most stressful legal processes a person will ever go through, and stress tends to breed misinformation. Friends, family members, and even daytime television love to share “facts” about divorce that simply aren’t true in California. […]

Grandparents occupy a unique and often misunderstood position in family law. They’re deeply involved in many children’s lives, sometimes serving as primary caregivers, and yet their legal standing when family relationships fracture is far less certain than most people assume. […]

Every family has stories that get passed down through generations. Some are funny, some are inspiring, and some are simply part of the fabric of family history. For Matthew Skarin, founder of Skarin Law Group, one of those stories includes […]

California is a community property state. Most people going through a dissolution understand that much. What they often don’t understand is that the community property rules don’t automatically apply to everything, and that property which started as separate can shift […]

California is a community property state. Most assets acquired during a marriage belong equally to both spouses. But not everything you own falls into that category, and understanding the difference matters more than most people realize until they’re sitting across […]