California Divorce Blawg

Basics of Divorce Video

Looking for a great introduction to the most basic concepts of divorce, then click here to watch a great video from findlaw.com.

Please be sure to visit www.hardinglaw.com, the website for the law firm of Harding & Associates, for more information on California family law.

Divorce Gift Registry!?

Okay, I don't know if this is weird or not?  A UK department store is now featuring a gift registry for divorcing couples.

Debenhams divorce list is the latest service to be launched for the newly separated.

Toasters, wine glasses and bed linen might be staples of the traditional wedding list, but they're set to make an appearance on the gift lists of separating couples, thanks to one retailer.

Debenhams today unveiled a divorce gift list service to encourage separating couples to ask their friends to pay for much-needed household items suited to their newly single life.

"With so many couples now living together before they marry, the wedding gift list concept is now regarded as more of an upgrade service, rather than stocking up the first home with the basics," said Peter Moore, head of retail services at Debenhams.

"However, a divorce means that one partner will be leaving their marital home and therefore be left without any essentials in their new house."

Items the store expects to be popular choices among divorcees include cookware, cutlery, crockery, glasses, bedlinen, towels and small electrical goods such as toasters and microwaves, as well as non-iron shirts, large plasma screen TVs and computer games.

There has recently been a flurry of services launched for those in the throes of separation. Earlier this month it emerged that one divorce lawyer had started selling legal advice vouchers for those thinking of separating.

Divorce parties, which are already big business in the US, have started making inroads in the UK fuelled by celebrities including Jordan, Gail Porter and Heather Mills celebrating their separations.

The celebrate-not-commiserate trend has also led to wedding cake specialists turning their hand to divorce sponges, while last year the Starting over show opened its doors in Brighton and will open in London in March this year.

January is the peak time for divorce and lawyers have said they expect the number of couples contacting them to rise signficantly this year as confidence in the economy grows.

On average, marrying couples include 120 items on their wedding gift list, including iPods and holidays, Debenhams said. Friends and family may be hoping a divorce list is rather cheaper.

Please click here for the original article.

Please be sure to visit www.hardinglaw.com, the website for the law firm of Harding & Associates, for more information on California family law.

Looking For More Information on the Proposition 8 Trial?

The Constitutional Law Prof Blog provides outstanding, ongoing coverage of the landmark Prop 8 trial being conducted in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.  This case will end up going to the U.S. Supreme Court.  If you want to learn about the specifics of the Prop. 8 case, or follow a case as it goes to the Supreme Court, the CLPB coverage is a great place to start.

Click here to visit the Prop 8. specific coverage.

Please be sure to visit www.hardinglaw.com, the website for the law firm of Harding & Associates, for more information on California family law.

California Courts Maintain Stellar Divorce Self-Help Website

There is an abundance of good, free family law information on the internet.  If you have questions about the process in California, one of the best resources that I have come across is the California Courts Self-Help Center.  This site covers the California process from A to Z, and is definitely worth your time.

Click here to visit the site.

Please be sure to visit www.hardinglaw.com, the website for the law firm of Harding & Associates, for more information on California family law.

California Trial on Same-Sex Marriage Ban Has National Effect

The validity of California's Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, is being challenged in a trial in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.  The trial is drawing national attention because it presents a U.S. Constitutional challenge to the legitimacy of state laws banning same sex marriage.  The case has already reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned the trial judge's decision to post video of the trial on YouTube.

According to cnn.com:

The case will likely head to the U.S. Supreme Court no matter what the outcome. It is expected to set legal precedents that will shape society for years to come and result in a landmark court decision that settles whether Americans can marry people of the same sex.

In legal circles and across the Internet, it has been dubbed this generation's Brown v. Board of Education, the case that led to the Supreme Court decision that outlawed segregation in schools. Some say it could be the biggest ruling since Roe v. Wade, which tackled abortion. It also closely echoes the Supreme Court case that overturned bans on interracial marriage.

"It does not weaken the fabric of our communities to grant them these basic familial rights -- it strengthens them," said Chad Griffin, President of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, when the lawsuit was announced in May. "It does not undermine marriage to extend to these loving couples -- it affirms it."

"This is one of the threshold civil rights issues of our generation," he said. "Justice is on our side and we're about to reclaim it."

Representing them are two high-powered attorneys, Ted Olson and David Boies. They're an unlikely pair -- former courtroom adversaries best known for being on opposing sides of the "hanging chad" dispute of the 2000 presidential election in Florida.

Olson, a staunch political conservative who defended the government's positions as solicitor general, was a choice that surprised many supporters of the case for same-sex marriage. He said there's nothing inconsistent about him fighting for the rights of same-sex couples.

"They call it a teaching moment these days," he said. "This gives us an opportunity to explain how wrong it has been to deny rights to individuals on that basis."

Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state's Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown are defendants in the lawsuit because of their positions in California government. However, both have said they would not defend the suit. Brown filed a legal motion saying he agreed with the position advanced by Olson and Boies. Schwarzenegger has taken no position.

Andrew Pugno, a lawyer for an organization called Protect Marriage, the group that came up with Proposition 8, said he believes the issue was solved when the people of California made their voices heard in the voting booth.

"Seven million Californians voted to preserve or restore what marriage has meant since the beginning of time," he said. "If they're not permitted to do something as basic as that, then there's something, really something, wrong with our system."

For Pugno and supporters on his side of the issue, keeping the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman is what makes sense.

"Marriage legally and socially has always been a social public institution that affects far more than the adults involved," he said. "We are taking a position that society has a very good reason for limiting marriage the way it does. ... The relationship of a man and woman bears a relationship to child-rearing that no other relationship can duplicate."

The Proposition 8 vote is part of a long line of seesaw rulings, court cases, debates and protests in California over the issue.

After California's Legislature approved same-sex marriages [sic], voters took to the polls in November 2008; a slim majority -- 52 percent -- approved of banning the marriages. In May 2009, California's highest court upheld the ban, but allowed about 18,000 unions performed before the ban to remain valid.

This is high legal drama.  Please click here for the original cnn.com article.

Please be sure to visit www.hardinglaw.com, the website for the law firm of Harding & Associates, for more information on California family law.