On August 4, 2009, a three-panel Federal Court ordered that California reduce its inmate population. The Court cited California’s failure to protect the constitutional rights of the inmates in custody in California state prison as a reason for granting this order. The Court ordered that within 45 days of the order (August 4, 2009), the state of California shall provide the Court with a population reduction plan that “will in no more than two years reduce the population of the California Department of Corrections adult institutions to 137.5% of their combined design capacity

California attorney general Jerry Brown vowed to appeal the ruling and until the appeals process works out, the reduction plan and subsequent actual reduction in the population is not likely to go forward. But the Court has spoken and there will likely be changes in the near future.

What does this mean for your case? The Judges in their order encouraged the state to reform its outdated sentencing policies and to use other means to reduce the prison population. In other words, a competent and aggressive attorney can use this case and information to argue that your, your friend, or your family member not be sentenced to state prison based on this information. Rather, the attorney could argue that the defendant should be sentenced to county jail, probation, weekend jail, or even home confinement instead of state prison.

It’s important to hire a competent attorney to defend you or your loved one in their California criminal case. The Law Offices of Michael S. Carrillo can go to court and fight for your rights in your case and try to keep you out of jail. Call us now for a free consultation at (626) 799-9379.

When you are charged with a crime, the District Attorney’s Office will often offer for you to take a plea, which means you admit to some crimes and agree to terms of punishment such as jail time and probation. Probation will generally be for a period of 3 years and carry with it numerous terms, rules, and things you cannot do while you remain on probation. Some examples of probation terms are no drinking alcohol, stay away from the victim in the case, abide by the laws while on probation, and to surrender firearms. If you agree to the plea and accept the terms of probation that are laid out in your specific case, any violation of those terms (probation violation) can lead to the court revoking your probation.

Once you are placed on probation and you waive your right to appeal that right is gone completely and forever regarding the terms that you agreed to in your probation case. This applies to a medical marijuana case as was recently decided in a recent California case of Moret. In that case the defendant was charged with carrying a concealed weapon. As the case proceeded Moret decided to plea to the charge for a lesser sentence. After doing so, a sentencing hearing was held and Moret talked with a probation officer prior to the hearing. While talking to the probation officer Moret informed them that he had a medical marijuana card and used marijuana in the evenings to help him with headaches that he suffered from. When it came time for the sentencing hearing the probation report requested as a term of probation that Moret turn over his medical marijuana card and stop using marijuana during the term of his probation. Moret’s attorney objected to the marijuana terms, but did so unsuccessfully. Moret’s attorney allowed his client to agree to the probation terms and to waive his right to appeal when he agreed. Due to this when Moret later tried to appeal the marijuana related terms of his probation the court ruled that the terms of his probation would remain in effect until the end of his probationary term.

Cases like the Moret case are a perfect example of why you need an attorney representing you that knows the law and is able to advocate properly in your interest for your rights. If Moret’s attorney had worked out different terms for his probation he could have possibly retained his medical marijuana card while serving his probation term. For reasons like this it is crucial that you hire an attorney who knows criminal law and understands the complex nature of the law as well as possible repercussions like the attorneys at The Law Offices of Michael S. Carrillo. The Law Offices of Michael S. Carrillo can offer you a free consultation to discuss your case. Call us today for that consultation at (626) 799-9375.

When you are looking to collect on a family law judgment, not referring to child or spousal support, the first step if the court ordered date for payment has passed is to write a letter to the other party asking them to pay you the money and provide an address for them to mail payment. In your letter you can also inform the other party that the debt will increase based on an interest rate of 10% per year if they fail to pay the judgment. If the other party pays you based on the letter you wrote regarding the need for payment on the judgment then you are done. However, if they do not, the process tends to get more complicated and the aid of a lawyer would be beneficial.

Although you do have the ability to seek enforcement through the court it often times is also beneficial to be flexible in allowing the debtor to pay off the debt to you by accepting monthly or weekly payments, letting the debtor work off all or some of the debt, or even if you choose accept less than the court ordered. If you do decide after discussing with the debtor, other party, to let them pay of the money in installments it is in your best interest to send them a letter stating the dates when payments are due, how much is due at each time, and any interest that will accrue on the debt that they owe to you. Doing so helps protect you in the future if there is a dispute as to how much is owed when or how much interest is supposed to accumulate on the debt.

After taking all reasonable steps as stated above and the other party sill refuses to pay you, or pay in full, there are legal options available for you to pursue. In deciding to pursue legal options you should first look into whether the other party has any assets that you could go after in order to satisfy the debt that is owed to you. When pursuing your other legal means you can ask the court for a wage garnishment against the debtor, place a levy on the debtor’s bank account, and place a lien on real property [home and land] or personal property [cars, furniture, and equipment]. These different options are rather effective but considerably more complicated.

Due to the complexity of filing an action asking the court to place a levy, a lien, or to garnish wages it is important you conduct thorough research and have an experienced family law attorney represent you that is familiar with family law as how to enforce a judgment. The Law Office of Michael S. Carrillo can offer you a free consultation to discuss your case and options in collecting on your family law judgment. Call us today for that consultation at (626) 799-9375.

When you are facing a criminal case there are many protections that allow the cops to invade your privacy and violate your 4th amendment rights but will later be deemed legal. That is especially true if you aren’t able to advocate for yourself. For example when the cops pull you over they generally aren’t able to search your car without your consent unless some narrow exceptions exist. But in a recent California case of Branner, the cops pulled over a car that’s back license plate wasn’t well lit and headlights weren’t at the proper angle. After pulling the car over the cops noticed that the driver didn’t have his proper address on his license, due to moving eight months prior, thereby putting him in violation of a previous case that made him required to register as a drug offender. Based on this, the police placed the driver under arrest and in the back of their squad car and proceeded to search his car where they found more paraphernalia and adding more charges to the driver’s case.

The driver appealed the case due to the fact that they had detained him for an unreasonable time under new case law that had occurred since his detention and arrest. In the new case that came down after the driver was arrested, the court stated that to detain a person to search their car for unlawful activity not related to the arrest was a violation of the suspect’s 4th amendment rights. In making that ruling the court stated that the new rule would be retroactively applied, meaning that even cases and incidents that had occurred prior to the new law being created the law would and should still be applied.

When the court looked at applying that new rule to the drivers case the court decided that it was inapplicable because the cops acted, in what is called, “good faith” because when they conducted the search they believed they were acting legally. Also the court went on to say that the reason the driver was arrested was because of his noncompliance with updating his address for his drug offender case and not because of his vehicle code infractions which were the cause of his original stop. So due to the fact that the arrest was due to the previous drug case they had reason to search the car for any additional drug paraphernalia without violating the driver’s rights.

This case is the perfect example of technicalities and why you need a good lawyer to advocate in court for you. If the court had ruled that the vehicle code violation had been the reason for arrest, then the driver could have possibly won the case.

When you are faced with a criminal case, the complexity of the system and the laws are difficult to understand. That is why it’s important you hire an experienced criminal defense lawyer to defend you in your criminal case. The Law Offices of Michael S. Carrillo can offer you a free consultation to discuss your case. Call us today for that consultation at (626) 799-9375.

After a divorce or when there are children involved in a case, for child support or child custody, the case will last for years with modifications and reviews. During this time a spouse could ask the court for more visitation with their child, to pay less child support due to a change, or for a parent to request more child support from the non-custodial parent. Often times, as this process continues on, seemingly forever, things change in your life; you get re-married, you get promoted, you lose your job – all which can affect your case. When those life changes happen the court could, and has, made mistakes in looking at factors that they should not be looking at, which is why having a lawyer to advocate for you in these delicate matters is crucial.

In the 1995 California case of In re Marriage of Wood, the parties had been separated for a period of time and the former husband requested the court re-evaluate and lower his child support payments due to the fact that his former wife had remarried. In that case, the court looked at both parties’ incomes and also, improperly, looked at the income of the wife’s new husband in deciding the proper amount of child support the former father was to pay.

In doing so, the court failed to follow California Family Law Code section of 4057.5 when it did so. The new code section stated that the court may not consider the income of the former wife’s new husband when considering the appropriate amount of child support to be awarded. However, there is a narrow exception that states that the income of the new spouse may be considered when the child would suffer “extreme hardship” if the income was not considered, which is rarely the case or applicable. In the case of Wood, there was no danger of “extreme hardship” but the court none the less improperly ruled and adjusted the child support the ex-wife was to receive from her ex-husband due to her new husband’s income.

Luckily for the wife, she had an attorney who understood the law and saw the courts error and the injustice that the error created and was able to appeal the court’s ruling. In doing so, the appellate court ruled that the California trial court ruled improperly and ordered them to re-hear the case while applying the applicable Family Law code section in the case. Without an attorney, the ex-wife likely would’ve never been able to correct the courts mistake and receive the proper child support from her ex-husband. For reasons like this it is crucial that you hire a divorce lawyer who practices family law and understands the complex nature of the law like the lawyers at The Law Offices of Michael S. Carrillo. The Law Offices of Michael S. Carrillo can offer you a free consultation to discuss your case. Call us today for that consultation at (626) 799-9375.

In California, the courts apply different formulas to deal with the distribution of property and assets that the couple owned during their marriage. In some divorce cases, the court will have to deal with not only splitting up the property such as the home or savings accounts but businesses owned and worked at during the marriage. In situations where the business was bought during the course of the marriage the usual rule is that it is community property if it was purchased with community money, and will then be divided evenly between the two parties. For situations where there are businesses owned by one of the spouses prior to marriage, the court uses two different formulas depending on the nature of the business.

When the business that was purchased before the marriage increased in value during the marriage due to the spouse’s skills that worked there the courts use a formula from a case named Perierra. In this situation, the court will look at the value of the business at the time it was purchased prior to the marriage and award the spouse that worked at the business what they call a “reasonable rate of return” on the business. This basically means that for every year of marriage the spouse worked at the business they are entitled to 10% of the original purchase price of the business. So if the parties were married for 10 years the spouse that worked at and owned the business prior to the marriage is entitled to 10% of the original purchase price 10 times, one time for each year they worked at the business during the marriage. The remaining earnings and interest in the business is property of the community then is to be divided equally between the parties.

When the business that was purchased before the marriage took place increased in value during the marriage due to the sheer nature of the type of business or the services that it performed the courts use a formula from a case name Van Camp. In this situation, the court will look at the fair value that the spouse would’ve earned working at the business during the years and marriage and offset that amount with how much money the spouse actually took home as earnings each year. For example if the spouse’s work during one year of marriage was worth $30,000 but they spouse only took home $15,000 the community would still be owed $15,000 of earnings for that year. The court would then award that offset amount, $15,000 in the example above, to the community and the rest of the income and the business would be the property of the spouse who purchased it prior to marriage and worked at it during marriage.

In order to protect your rights and your separate property business it is important for you to hire a divorce lawyer that is responsive, reliable, and experienced in family law so you can obtain the best results possible on these complex and difficult issues. The Law Offices of Michael S. Carrillo has a great deal of experience in divorce cases and will handle your case with the greatest care. Contact our office immediately for a free consultation at (626) 799-9375.

Unfortunately there are times when you hire a divorce lawyer and they fail to follow through on their promises to help you with your legal matters. In cases where that happens it is possible for the court to hold it against you if you don’t find a lawyer who can properly advocate for you and explain to the court why you shouldn’t be held accountable for your lawyer’s failure to follow through.

In a 1994 California case of Fleming v Gallegos, the Plaintiff ran into this very problem. Her first lawyer did not do any work on the case for 2 years and nine months. Although she repeatedly communicated with him about the case, he failed to ever take any action on the matter. Finally she decided to hire a new lawyer and took her file from her first lawyer and hired this second lawyer. When she hired the second lawyer she filled out a substitution of attorney form for the second lawyer to sign and file with the court, which he never did. Instead he sat on the case for more than a year making her think he was helping her but instead he was never even recognized by the court at the attorney on the case due to his failure to file the substitution of attorney form.

Due to both of the lawyer’s failure to take any action on her case the court found her bound by the negligence of her attorneys’ and dismissed her case. On appeal she hired another lawyer to help advocate for her properly. Her new lawyer was able to prove to the court that based on past cases that a narrow exception applied where she shouldn’t be held accountable for her lawyer’s negligence because their actions were in essence abandonment of her and her case. Due to her new lawyer’s advocacy and knowledge of the law she won and was no longer punished by the system for her lawyer’s misconduct.

This case illustrates the need to hire a divorce lawyer that not only knows the law but is committed to you. At the Law Office of Michael S. Carrillo we are committed to helping you obtain the best result possible without making you feel lost in the system. We are always there to communicate with you and explain different aspects of the case with you, when you need it. The Law Offices of Michael S. Carrillo can offer you a free consultation to discuss your case. Call us today for that consultation at (626) 799-9375.

Many times when couples separate there are issues with community money being used to pay a spouse’s separate expenses while the dissolution is pending and they are living separate. There are also situations where one spouse will pay for community expenses, such as the family house, with their separate income while the dissolution is pending. Both of these situations are often very complex and confusing without the help of an attorney that understands the law and can advocate for you in the best way possible.

In situations where a spouse is using the money they earned after the date of separation for expenses that both compiled during the marriage, the spouse that made those payments is entitled reimbursement for the expenses paid. In the case of In re the Marriage of Epstein, the court dealt with that exact issue and explained that reimbursement is entitled to that spouse in a divorce case unless the parties had an agreement before the money was used for the community expenses.

Also the court in that case looked at when a spouse uses shared money (community property) for their separate property expenses after the separation of the spouses has occurred. When one spouse uses the community money for their own expenses, they can be, and should be, ordered to repay the money used to both when the dissolution is being finalized.

Financial issues are some of the most complex issues that need to be sorted out when the divorce is being finalized. Due to these complexities when dealing with dividing assets and the rights regarding spousal support it is extremely important to hire a divorce lawyer that is responsive, reliable, and experienced in family law so that you can obtain the best result possible. The Law Offices of Michael S. Carrillo has a great deal of experience in divorce cases and will handle your case with the greatest care. Contact our office immediately for a free consultation at (626) 799-9375.

Often times when a party is seeking a permanent separation from their spouse they would prefer it if the marriage had never existed. Legally that is a possibility if the reason for the divorce meets certain legal standards and if so a person can obtain an annulment which legally acts as if the marriage had never occurred. One of the ways for a spouse to seek an annulment is through a claim that their spouse convinced them to entering into the marriage based on lies, legally speaking “fraud in the inducement”. But in the state of California there are limited situations in which the court will allow an annulment based on fraud in the inducement. In deciding whether you will have a chance at obtaining an annulment there are many complexities, as I will explain in generalities, and the advice of an attorney would likely be highly beneficial.

Under California law, and as stated in the case of In re the Marriage of Meagher, “an annulment of marriage may be granted on the basis of fraud only ‘in an extreme case where the particular fraud goes to the very essence of the marriage relation.’” As confusing as that sounds, the basic rule is that in order to annul the marriage the lies that led to the marriage relate to the sexual or procreative aspects of marriage. Common examples where the annulment requirements were met where one spouse is concealing their sterility when entering into the marriage, when a soon to be wife conceals that she was pregnant by another man, or when a spouse has an intent to continue an intimate relationship with a third person at the time of the marriage. As the common examples illustrate the court will generally grant an annulment on the basis of fraud in the inducement in cases where the fraud is related to the sexual or procreative aspects of marriage.

There have also been cases where the requirements didn’t seem to be met but the courts have granted the annulment due to the highly deceptive acts on the part of the spouse that the annulment is being sought against. An example of this is in the California case of Douglass v Douglass. In that case prior to their marriage the husband told his soon to be wife that he was an honest, law abiding, respectable and honorable man, with only one child whom he took care of, however shortly after marriage the wife found this to be anything but the truth. Three months into their marriage Husband was arrested for a parole violation due to his failure to support his two children from a previous marriage and Wife further found out that he had been convicted of grand theft only a few years earlier. In that case the court held that although the fraud isn’t one that is conventionally the type that permits an annulment but not granting an annulment to Wife would be “unjust and intolerable”.

Due to the complexities of the law when seeking an annulment it is important to hire divorce lawyer that is aware of all possible benefits you should be entitled to in a family law case. The Law Offices of Michael S. Carrillo will explore any and all options in order to get you the best results from your case. Give us a call today for a free consultation and to see what he can do for you on your case. (626) 799-9375.

Often times when you are considering a divorce there are financial burdens that make hiring an attorney seem impossible due to the expenses that are commonly believed to come along with that. However, what most people don’t know is that there are ways around that expense if they are the non-working spouse, such as a stay at home mom, in the marriage. There are protections in the legal system to help you protect your rights if you’ve been the nonworking spouse and want an attorney to help you in your dissolution.

In a California case In re the Marriage of Hatch the court ruled on this very matter when a stay at home mom for numerous years and her husband were seeking a divorce. The stay at home wife had no income to speak of or any real earning potential as she hadn’t been working for numerous years as well. The court explained that there are protections for a spouse in such a situation due to the fact that the court wants to protect the non-working spouse and their ability to enforce their rights.

If you are a non-working spouse and seeking dissolution from your spouse and are unable to afford an attorney due to your lack of income you can ask the court for assistance in affording an attorney by requesting a temporary attorney. When asking for the temporary attorney expenses from the court the court looks at the incomes of the two spouses as well as the needs of the two spouses in making a decision as to whether they should grant the request for the temporary attorney.

This ability to have a temporary attorney awarded to a party by the court can have a great deal of impact on the outcome of your case. When the court grants the temporary attorney you will then have an attorney to assist you and advocate for you throughout the different phases of the dissolution proceedings which can greatly impact the outcome of the case due to the potential complexities of the law.

It is important to seek the advice of an attorney that is aware of all possible benefits you should be entitled to in a family law case. The Law Offices of Michael S. Carrillo will explore any and all options in order to get you the best results from your case. Give us a call today for a free consultation and to see what he can do for you on your case. (626) 799-9375.