2016 Legislation Highlights: the Year in Review

• Jurisdiction: California,United States
• Publication year: 2017
• Citation: Vol. 39 No. 2

2016 Legislation Highlights: The Year in Review

During the past year, significant legislation was enacted that affects family law. The continuing collaboration between Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) and the Family Law Section continues to reap benefits for our members. The Family Law News is pleased to once again publish the CEB Year in Review. Each year, CEB publishes a detailed compilation of important case law and legislative developments on issues ranging from attorneys fees to child custody to enforcement. Reprinted below for your review and easy reference are the key legislation during late 2015 and 2016. Except as indicated otherwise, all legislation discussed is operative January 1, 2017. Due to space constraints, the Family Law News is unable to publish the list of new cases in this issue. The next issue of the Family Law News will include the CEB case summaries. Thanks again to CEB for supporting the education of the Family Law Section.

2016 Family Law Legislation Child Support

Enforcement

AB 2882 (Stats 2016, ch 474, §§8-9,11-28, 31-35)

Legislation adds provisions to the Family Code declaring that the California Child Support Enforcement System (or its replacement) may be used as a single statewide registry for all child support orders in California—thereby replacing corresponding provisions in the Welfare and Institutions Code the bill repeals. The legislation (AB 2882, §§8-9,11-28, 31-35) is part of an "omnibus" family law bill that concerns support enforcement and other matters, amending numerous related statutes and deleting obsolete provisions. It is operative January 1, 2017.

Statewide child support registry. Assembly Bill 2882 adds a new article to a chapter of the Family Code in the form of Fam C §§17390-17393, concerning a statewide child support registry. These new Family Code statutes supplant (and largely mirror) corresponding statutes in the Welfare and Institutions Code (former Welf & Inst Code §§16575-16577), which AB 2882 has now repealed.

Family Code §17390(a) contains a legislative finding and declaration "that there is no single statewide database containing statistical data regarding child support orders." It goes on to provide that the California Child Support Enforcement System or its replacement may be used as a single statewide registry for all child support orders in California, "including orders for cases under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act and all cases with child support orders." Fam C §17390(b). Accordingly, the Department of Child Support Services is required to develop an implementation plan for a statewide child support registry, which "can be accessed and integrated for statistical analysis and reporting purposes with all child support order data contained in the California Child Support Enforcement System." Fam C §17391(a). The Judicial Council is charged with developing any forms necessary to implement the registry. See Fam C §§17392-17393.

In recognition of these Family Code provisions, AB 2882 amends a number of statutes to replace references to (1) the former Welfare and Institutions Code sections with the Family Code sections, and (2) the California Child Support Automation System with the California Child Support Enforcement System. See Fam C §§4014(c)-(d), 4052.5(c), 17450(d)-(e), 17460(b), 17506(c)-(e), 17523.5(a), 17525(a), 17528(a). The bill also amends a series of support enforcement statutes to delete obsolete references to the Franchise Tax Board and replaces these, in certain instances, with references to the State Disbursement Unit. See Fam C §§17400(h) (5), 17506(c), 17508(a), 17522.5(a), 17801(h). The bill, similarly, repeals several obsolete statutes that referred to the Franchise Tax Board. Former Fam C §§17458, 17802. The bill also repeals certain other obsolete or superseded portions of the Welfare and Institutions Code concerning support. See, e.g., former Welf & Inst C §§11475.2-11475.3, 11476.2.

Other provisions. The bill adds new Fam C §17504.1, concerning financial information that must be provided monthly by local child support agencies to CalWORKS recipients.

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Reference: Practice Under the California Family Code: Dissolution, Legal Separation, Nullity, chap 20 (Cal CEB).

Community Property

Date of Separation

SB 1255 (Stats 2016, ch 114)

Legislation intended to abrogate Marriage of Davis (2015) 61 C4th 846 and an earlier case provides that, in determining the date of separation, a court must take into consideration all relevant evidence of a complete and final break in the marital relationship, not simply that the parties live in separate residences. The legislation (SB 1255) adds Fam C §70 and amends Fam C §§771, 910, 914, and 4338, and is operative January 1, 2017.

In Marriage of Davis (2015) 61 C4th 846, the California Supreme Court held that a married couple may not be considered to be living "separate and apart" for purposes of Fam C §771(a) when they live together in the same residence. It concluded that living in separate residences "is an indispensable threshold requirement" for a finding that spouses are living separate and apart, citing Marriage of Norviel (2002) 102 CA4th 1152, 1162. In a footnote, however, the Davis court did "expressly reserve the question whether there could be circumstances that would support a finding that the spouses were 'living separate and apart,' i.e., that they had established separate residences with the requisite objectively evidenced...