Property Settlement Agreement (Children)

If you can’t reach an agreement with your spouse then a judge will have to decide these issues.

You can prepare by thinking about what you want and then schedule a time to talk with your spouse once you have hammered out details one of you should draft the agreement.

Don’t sign until each person has met with their own lawyer to review the draft.

Talking with your spouse and decide what you want.

You will be more effective if you decide ahead of time what you want.

• • Do you want full custody of the children?
  • Do you want spousal support?? 
  • If you do, how much support do you need?

To answer these questions do the following:

• • Identify where you want to live
  • You might want to stay in your house because you have a job nearby or for another reason 
  • If you want to move figure out where

Come up with a budget as best as you can

You should estimate your expenses and compare the amount to your expected Income.

Before beginning to negotiate a settlement agreement you should meet with an attorney 

• Only a qualified California attorney can explain your rights to you. 
• You don’t want to give up anything in your divorce settlement agreement that you are entitled to.
• Schedule a time to talk with your spouse. Try to find a time when the children aren’t in the house and when you can focus solely on the task at hand.
• Realize that it might take multiple sessions to reach an agreement on all issues so don’t plan to finish in an hour.
• Approach your spouse and say we really need to talk about where the children will live in child support.
• When are you available if possible meet in person and not over the phone.
• Come up with a task list. You want your divorce settlement agreement to be comprehensive accordingly, you should come up with a task list or checklist that you can work through as a couple.

With each person having a list you have something to focus on a comprehensive settlement agreement will cover the following:

• • Child Custody 

There are two kinds of custody legal and physical 

• • With legal custody, you get to make decisions for the child such as where they go to school what medical treatment they get etc 
  • Physical custody means the child spends time with you. One parent can have primary physical custody and the other can have visitation be as detailed as possible about your parenting plan.

Child Support, you can agree to a child support amount but realize that the judge must approve the amount.

A judge always decides what is in the best interest of the child and you’ll need to research California’s guidelines on child support 

Division of property sit down and come up with a list of everything you own.

Each person should fill out a schedule of assets and debts which you’ll have to file with your divorce petition for you can get the form from your court clerk or download it from online.

Division of Debt – decide who will handle the debt and whether you will transfer it into one person’s name.

Spousal Support.- You might want to seek alimony called spousal support. In California you probably won’t get support for more than half of the years you were married. If married for less than ten. however, if you were married for more than ten then the court won’t set a definite termination date.