Bay Area Family Crisis Centers and Help Centers
Bay Area County and California State Website Links – Divorce
California State
https://www.courts.ca.gov/selfhelp-divorce.htm?rdeLocaleAttr=en
Contra Costa County
Divorce Roadmap: https://www.cc-courts.org/family/divorce-roadmap.aspx
Alameda County
Divorce, Separation & Annulment: http://www.alameda.courts.ca.gov/pages.aspx/Divorce-Separation-Annulment
Solano County
Family Law Court: https://www.solano.courts.ca.gov/Courts/FamilyLaw.html
San Francisco County
https://www.sfsuperiorcourt.org/self-help/dissolution-of-marriage-domestic-partnership
Divorce Alternative – Legal Separation
A legal separation won’t end a marriage or domestic partnership. Unlike divorce or dissolution, in cases of a legal separation, the marriage or domestic partnership remains unbroken, prohibiting the parties from remarriage or entering a new domestic partnership.
Legal separation is an option for couples that do not wish to divorce but want to separate their finances and property.
The grounds for legal separation are the same as those for divorce. To file for legal separation, one party must reside in the county where the papers are filed at the time the case is started; however, there is no required length of residency. Our Walnut Creek legal separation lawyers can guide you through all the ins and outs of the process.
Divorce Alternative – Annulment
With an annulment, the court determines that a marriage or domestic partnership is not legally valid. Marriages or domestic partnerships that are incestuous or bigamous are never valid. Others can be declared “void” or “voidable” because on one of the following:
- of force, fraud, or physical or mental incapacity;
- one of the spouses was legally too young to marry or enter a domestic partnership; or
- one of the spouses was already married or in a domestic partnership.
More information about the grounds for an annulment, as well as time limits for filing for an annulment, are available from the California Family Code, sections 2210 et seq. Annulments are very uncommon. If you ask to have your marriage or domestic partnership annulled, you will have to go to hearing with a judge. To file for an annulment, one party must reside in the county where the papers are filed at the time the case is started. Again, there is no required length of residency.
Adoptions by Same-Sex Married Persons
My daughter and her wife had the hardest time getting pregnant. They went through 1 inseminations, none of which led to a viable pregnancy. Then, they went through in vitro fertilization, daily shots that left excruciatingly painful marks, hormonal influxes to kill an elephant, followed by the implantation procedure.
Lucky for us all, that this implantation took, and what seemed like ten months later, my daughter delivered a healthy baby. My daughter and her wife went through all of the pain, agony, and finally joy together.
When my grandchild was born, immediately, however, I was appalled to learn that my daughter-in-law, who had been married to my daughter all the time they were trying to get pregnant, who shared in the phenomenal expenses of this new birth, was not even considered by California law to be the child’s parent. The law presumes that a married man is the father of a newborn; there is no such presumption with same-sex married persons.
Immediately, I prepared the paperwork for my daughter and her wife to take to court for my daughter-in-law to be the adoptive parent of my grandson.
If you need help adopting, at Mendes Weed, we feel adoption is a joyous occasion. We would love to share in your joy. Please allow us to help you adopt.
We are also experienced in step-parent adoptions, including the adoption of adults. What better way is there to show that special someone, a former child that you parented, that you love them dearly than by adoption. Yes, adults can be adopted too!
Whether you are or were the foster parent, the step-parent, or the grandparent, Mendes Weed, LLP would love to help you adopt.