Family Law, Child Welfare Law and Other Legal Services

Family Law

Family law deals with all aspects of your legal rights and obligations as they apply to the family unit. It covers a vast field: Divorce, Legal Separation, Custody and Visitation, Child Support (Establishing, Modifying or Collecting), Spousal Support (Establishing, Modifying or Collecting), Property/Debt Division, Retirement/Pension Plan Division, and Judgment Enforcement.

Family disputes involve strong emotions – emotions that can get in the way of rational thinking and reasonable settlements. When feelings of anger and revenge take over, we lose sight of reality, so it is important to keep our emotions in check as much as possible. If you find your emotions getting out of control, particularly where a divorce or children are concerned, contact an experienced family law attorney for help.

We understand the emotional nature of family law legal matters and the importance of trust in the family law attorney client relationship. The advice of a good family law attorney will help you get through this difficult time in your life.

Child Welfare Law

Child Welfare Law consists of dealing with either actual or alleged child abuse and/or neglect issues. These are otherwise known as juvenile dependency cases and often times social services, i.e. Child Protective Services, will be involved.

Child Welfare Law is governed by the Welfare and Institutions Code and is otherwise known as the juvenile dependency system. If your child has been removed or if the County has filed an allegation against you, however, has not yet removed your child, you are going to need legal guidance in this area. Our managing and supervising attorney is a certified specialist in child welfare law and has practiced in this area for over 12 years.

If your child has not been removed and you have not had a petition filed against you with child abuse and/or neglect allegations, are you a parent who has been told that you must file a motion in family court or your child will be removed? If so, you will not only need a family law attorney but you will need a family law attorney who is familiar with the child welfare system, as it is governed by a completely different set of laws and court system. Knowing how these two areas of law intersect is important and may even be critical to your case.

If you are a foster parent and/or a relative seeking placement (or, already have placement) of a relative child that may be in foster care, we can help. Many foster parents and/or relatives do not know that they have rights too. There are rights to file, in appropriate cases, a request for de facto parent status, request relative placement and/or request a finding of prospective adoptive parent status. Working with an experienced attorney in this field can help.

Estate Planning – Wills & Trusts

No matter your health, age, or amount of property it is important to have an estate plan. Having a good estate plan in place will help ensure your assets are managed and disposed of in a manner that you prefer upon your death. It is imperative to have a will or trust in place because if you don’t, the managing and disposing of your assets will be left to the courts, even custody of your children would pass into the hands of the courts. You do not need to be wealthy to have an estate plan in place.

Probate, Trust Administration, Conservatorships & Guardianships

Probate – Our office can help with the legal process of transferring of an estate after someone passes away to the Keegan heirs, will contests and even omitted heirs.

Trust Administration – shower right nowThe process of managing the assets held in a trust is known as trust administration. The trust administration process can take place while the creator of the trust is still living, or after his or her death. A trustee is the individual responsible for overseeing the trust administration process.

Conservatorships – A Conservatorship is similar to a guardianship, however, it applies to a situation when an adult needs support and/ protection.

Guaridanships – A guardianship exists when an adult who is not the child’s parent is appointed by the court to care for the child’s person and/or property.

Other Legal Services

There are many other legal services that may be needed that overlap with family law and child welfare law, however, are not specifically governed by the Family Code or Welfare and Institutions Code in California. For example, did you forget to change your name back to your maiden name when you were going through your divorce? If so, we can help. Are you someone who has a family law judgment but needs assistance with enforcing debt collection for money judgments owed to you, if so, we can help. Please view our site for a detailed list of our other services that we can help with.