by Shawn Weber, JD, CLS-F | Dec 4, 2012 | Uncategorized
By Shawn Weber
www.bravewebermack.com
I was pleased to take part in an interview on San Diego’s KPBS TV’s “Evening Edition” on behalf of the Collaborative Family Law Group of San Diego. The subject of the interview involved the budget cuts affecting the family courts in San Diego and why families and parties going through family law litigation should consider no-court options such as mediation or collaborative divorce. The host, Peggy Pico, was delightful. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to more opportunities to explain why out-of-court options are so important.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/0eOlR1pMzKk]
See Also:
Collaborative Family Law Group of San Diego Blog: “KPBS-TV Interview: Cuts to San Diego County Courts Are Affecting Families”
San Diego Superior Court: Court Reporter Information
Brave, Weber & Mack Website: San Diego Collaborative Divorce Lawyer
Brave, Weber & Mack Website: San Diego Mediation Lawyers
Shawn Weber’s Interview on San Diego KPBS Radio’s Midday Edition: San Diego County Court budget cuts will affect family law cases
by Shawn Weber, JD, CLS-F | May 21, 2011 | Uncategorized
Adultery can be a terrible betrayal, but I completely agree with the sentiment expressed in this article. If you go and interfere in someone else’s marriage, you are simply making a bad situation worse. The best thing you can do is stay away.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
by Shawn Weber | Feb 25, 2010 | Uncategorized
By Shawn Weber, San Diego Divorce Attorney
When dividing the community property interest in a defined benefit plan, the Court most often uses the so-called “Time Rule” or “Brown Formula”. Many clients (and a lot more attorneys than you would think) have a difficult time understanding how the time rule formula works.
Basically, the court uses a formula for the apportionment between divorcing spouses of the future retirement benefits. A percentage is determined based on the ratio between the time that a member spouse was enrolled in a defined benefit plan during the marriage and the total time that the person was enrolled in the plan. The formula is used because often times the member spouse is not yet retired and is still racking up separate property time in the plan, changing the percentage of the total benefit payment the non-member spouse would receive when the plan goes into pay status. For an excellent discussion of the Court’s use of the time rule, see In re Marriage of Judd (1977) 68 Cal.App.3d 515, 137 Cal.Rptr. 318.
In applying the formula to a pension annuity, the Court in Judd “simply” boiled the time rule down as follows:
“The most effective method of [dividing the community property portion of a pension] would be to determine the community interest to be that fraction of retirement assets, the numerator of which represents the length of service during the marriage but before the separation, and the denominator of which represents the total length of service by the employee-spouse. Such disposition would comport with what we have termed the ‘time rule.'”
For me, it is easier to actually see the formula written out as follows:
1/2 x (Member’s system credit accumulated from date of marriage / members total system service credit at time benefits become payable) x (Member’s benefit at time benefits become payable) = (Non-member spouse’s share of system benefits)
Usually, a Qualified Domestic Relations Order or “QDRO” will be required by the pension administrator to apply the time rule to the pension. Then, once the pension goes into pay status, the payments will be divided according to the formula.
time rule, pension, retirement, dividing retirement, community property, QDRO, domestic relations order, san diego divorce attorney
