CHILD
SUPPORT RESOURCES ON THE WEB
Many individuals have started to contact our office regarding actions pending in another state. Unfortunately, each state has their own rules about collection of child support, and you may need to speak to an attorney licensed in that state.
An attorney licensed only in California, or New York, or Florida, can only answer questions regarding the law in the state they are licensed, and unfortunately, there is no simple answer since each state is free to make up their own rules for enforcement. Also, part of the requirements of the bar in each individual state is a rule that an attorney licensed in one state shall not give legal advise regarding the laws of another state unless they are licensed in that state. An attorney can be sanctioned by their own bar for failure to follow these ethical rules. So, if your matter is pending in some other state, take advantage of the research we have done. Contact one of the attorney referral services listed below, or nationwide organizations listed. Do not contact us, because you will most likely get a response that reiterates the bar rules of the state of California.
The following is a list of resources we have found on the web for further information, and it is not intended to be exhaustive, nor does the listing serve as an endorsement of their views or reliability of the legal information included. These are being posted for the hundreds of people who call or
email each month about a case somewhere outside of California, or for those people who cannot afford the services of an attorney or for those who are just simply interested in learning more. This site will be updated quarterly, and if anyone has any suggestions or comments about a site, or wants to include some other site that we missed, please feel free to
email us with the information.
POLITICAL LOBBYING GROUPS
The Coalition of Parent Support
was established as a result political fallout from Senate Bill 370 in July of 1992 (now Family Code 4055). This bill capped a doubling of child support levels over a
seven month period, and reclassified a great deal of alimony as taxable to the
payor. S. B. 370 sent legions of
Non-Custodial Parents into bankruptcy, and produced no real benefit to children. COPS has drawn national attention. "We work with parents, legislators, and family court professionals to keep separated parents engaged the lives of their children. We encourage responsibility on the part of all parents, and advocate the removal of political barriers to parental support through our sponsorship of legislation"
This is a non-profit organization founded by a custodial parent. They advocate strong involvement in child support legislation, and they are the largest such group in America. They are active inside California and nationwide.
FATHERS
RIGHTS:
This is an organization for Fathers rights, with information on child support.
MAFIA
ATTORNEY REFERRAL SOUTHSIDE OF CALIFORNIA
DIVORCE HEADQUARTERS:
ditto of divorce source and divorce net.
ALL LAW
This is a more general web site for attorney referrals and general legal information.
DivorceSupport.com
- This site provides information on a variety of divorce issues, a lawyer referral network, message boards, information about state laws, and addresses male/female issues surrounding divorce.
Nolo Press -
This site features information on a variety of legal issues including: divorce, child support, and adoption. You can also purchase books on legal topics, as Nolo Press is a publisher located in California. However, a caveat about the forms in the books. The Child Support Book is designed for California Modifications. The judicial Counsel of California modifies the forms on the average once per year. If you have a copy of a book published by Nolo Press, don't use the Forms in the book without first checking with the local court to make sure that the forms have not been updated. Submitting typed incorrect forms can be a pain, since the clerk usually will reject them, and then you get to go home and type them all over again.
Nolo Self-Help Law Center, Provides general non-state specific information about divorce. These people have been around for years, and published the original "how to" books on divorce.
FEDERAL RESOURCES
The Federal Office of Child Support
Enforcement, or the people who are supposed to set up the federal guidelines for compliance with 42 USC 666. Actually, a very well organized and informative cite as to what are the federal guidelines, and who to contact in each state, and an overall matrix of which enforcement techniques have been adopted in each state and territory.
Get the actual facts as to the statistical information from the Feds directly as to who is collecting what.
OTHER WEB RESOURCES
This is the cite for Yahoo that lists many different resources for child support from both the collector and
payor's perspective.
The Official State cites for EACH STATE child support collection agencies.
NOTE: there are many "private" collection agencies on the web who for a fee will collect child support for the custodial parent. Some are really bad at harassing people on the telephone. MAKE SURE THAT WHEN YOU ARE NEGOTIATING WITH SOMEONE WHO SAYS THAT THEY ARE COLLECTING THE PAST DUE CHILD SUPPORT THAT THEY REALLY ARE WHO THEY SAY THEY ARE. If nothing else, call the ex to make sure that she did indeed hire these people. AT LEAST HERE IN CALIFORNIA, OUR BUREAU OF CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT (AKA THE DA) DOES NOT HIRE AS A GENERAL RULE PRIVATE COLLECTION COMPANIES TO COLLECT PAST DUE MONEY.
Only a governmental agency can take your driver's license, file a tax lien, intercept your tax refund or have your passport revoked. The most recent measure in congress to extend this power to private non IV-D agencies (meaning the private bar and collection agencies) was defeated in December 2000.
TO OBTAIN OUT OF STATE RECORDS
This company provides the information for each 50 states and includes address and telephone numbers for how to get birth, death, marriage records, and DMV records, in all 50 states.
CALIFORNIA RESOURCES for child support collection
The official California governmental site of the people in Sacramento who are enforcing the child support laws in this state. You'll find information ranging from child support services available in your county to special child support publications and programs.
The Department of Child Support Services (DCSS)
This is the new statewide Bureau set up to replace the District Attorney's office
Includes information as to the "transition" period.
Assembly Bill 196 mandates that all child support activities transition out of the District Attorney's offices and into a new local child support agency by December 31, 2002. DCSS contracted with a private sector vendor to conduct transition readiness surveys and make recommendations to DCSS on a transition template and schedule. Eleven counties have been selected to apply to be "pioneers" to test the transition process prior to implementing the formal transition schedule. The "pioneer" counties selected will transition this calendar year
Locally, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego are in the "second phase", scheduled for transition by December 31, 2001. Santa Barbara and Riverside were in the "first phase" and transition was completed by December 31, 2000. Orange and Ventura are scheduled for transition by December 31, 2001.
COUNTY BRANCHES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHILD SUPPORT SERVICES:
Some of the individual District Attorney/Bureau of Child Support offices have published their web cites. Some have used the "old" web cites for the DA and others have new ones.
OTHER CALIFORNIA RESOURCES
California
Law - This is a web cite that contains copies of the California Codes, including the Family Code. Good for legal research on the web.
California Courts
Opinions - This web cite has copies of the most recent California Supreme Court and Court of Appeals published opinions for the last 60 days and an archive service for older cases. This is not the "official" opinions and is for general information only. For purposes of citation in a legal brief go to Callaw or West Publications directly, or the law library for the "official" published versions. Keep in mind just because a case is listed here does not mean that it has not been depublished.
CALIFORNIA JUDICIAL COUNSEL FORMS
- Judicial Council forms are provided as Adobe Acrobat documents (PDF) that you can print on any computer for which an Adobe Acrobat Reader is available. You cant fill out these forms electronically, but this cite will allow you to print out forms that can be typed. For Judicial Council of California that are electronically usable, forms may be obtained from the official publisher of the forms, West Group:
West
Group
610 Opperman Drive
Eagan, Minnesota 55123
1-800-328-4880
Forms may also be obtained from your local trial court
This site, hosted by the Judicial Counsel of California, is intended to help you find legal assistance, learn about California law, work better with an attorney, and represent yourself in some legal matters. It covers a wide arrange to topics, including family law. It does not provide legal advise. It includes listing for all of the California individual counties Facilitator's offices, the addresses of your local Family Law Court, and information as to what to expect when you go to Court.
FACILITATOR'S OFFICES
- Lists all of the addresses and phone numbers for the facilitator's office in the state and what kind of family law services they offer. In alphabetical order by county.
WEB CITES FOR CALIFORNIA FAMILY LAW COURTS
- Not all counties have published their web cites, but this is the list that the state of California has officially published.
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Family Law in California
Marsha Baucom holds degrees in Psychology, and Family Law and has been
practicing as a Licensed California Family Law Attorney representing
thousands of clients for over a decade.
She is respected by her peers, and clients that have enjoyed the
benefits of her legal representation.
This is experience you can count on.
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