Understanding Marriage Dissolution: San Francisco Separation

The first step of the divorce process in California is obtaining a legal separation, the arrangement that allows a couple to live apart. A legal separation is often quite similar to a final divorce decree. This agreement needs to be developed with a clear understanding of its implications.

Mediating a Legal Separation

With divorce and separation, emotions are most pronounced in the initial stages of the process. As such, you want the San Francisco attorney handling your separation agreement to have both the legal acumen and counseling skills necessary to manage a difficult time. This is where a skilled mediator can help. Mediation in a divorce is effective because the parties can directly hear the concerns of the other spouse, and, with the assistance of the neutral mediator, can accommodate those concerns without unnecessarily compromising their own interests

San Francisco legal separation issues

Key issues addressed in a legal separation include the following:

• Property division: For assets acquired since the marriage, how are they to be shared equally? California is a community property state, defaulting to a 50-50 split of home, savings, and other items of financial value acquired during the marriage.
• Debt division: Similar to assets, debts are considered to be shared equally between spouses unless demonstrated otherwise. Payments on those debts need to continue during the separation period.
  • Note: Neither property nor debt accumulation after the separation is made legal are considered community property.
• Spousal support: If the income of one spouse is significantly larger than that of the other, the San Francisco separation agreement is likely to include financial support of the latter by the former.
• Child custody and visitation: Unless one spouse is determined to be abusive, negligent, absent, or involved in some type of crime, shared custody is generally favored in most separation agreements. But when one parent has primary custody, the agreement spells out how, when, and under what circumstances the non-custodial parent is able to see his or her child or children.
• Child support: The general welfare and support of children are priority terms in agreements on separation or divorce in San Francisco. To equalize living conditions for the child at the homes of both parents, a higher-earning parent typically makes payments to the lesser-earning parent.
• Insurance coverage: Because of the increased proportion of household earnings that now go to medical healthcare insurance coverage, how each person is insured is an essential consideration in a San Francisco legal separation.

Mediation over litigation for divorce

Separation carries such great importance that selection of a divorce mediator in San Francisco to handle your case requires being an astute client willing to critically review the credentials of different attorneys. The law firm of McDonald & Mannion believes that chief among those credentials is the ability to mediate, instead of litigate.

To find the best mediator for your divorce, in addition to having experience with divorce and separation in San Francisco, an extremely important quality to look for, you should also keep the following issues in mind:

• What legal assistants work with the mediator on his or her cases?
• What mediation processes might the mediator use to break a stalemate?
• What is the billing schedule—by the case, by the hour, or something else?
• How many mediations has the attorney completed?

Contact the San Francisco law firm of McDonald & Mannion to learn more about your separation agreement questions. Our lawyers have completed more than 1,000 successful mediations. For your convenience, we also offer services in Spanish.