San Diego, CA

Best Divorce Lawyers San Diego, CA Of 2024

Published

2 years ago

January 9, 2024

Best Divorce Lawyers San Diego, CA Of 2024

The process of officially ending a marriage in California requires specific steps. Below, we provide detailed information about the various aspects of the state’s divorce process.

California Divorce Requirements

Each state has its own divorce eligibility criteria. If you’re considering a divorce in California, you must meet these specific criteria:

Residency requirement. You or your spouse must have been a resident of California for at least six months and of the county where you’re filing for the past three months.
Legal separation. In California, you can opt for legal separation, which decides property division, debts, financial support and child custody and visitation without dissolving the marriage itself.
Filing for divorce. To start the divorce process, you need to initiate a court case. This involves completing and submitting specific forms to the county court.

Types of Divorce and Separation in California

California offers a variety of options for married couples looking to end their marriage.

No-fault divorce. As a no-fault divorce state, California doesn’t require you to prove your spouse is at fault to get a divorce. You can obtain a divorce even if your spouse doesn’t agree to it.
Uncontested divorce. This is a quicker and easier process where both spouses agree on all key issues like property division, child custody, support, and finances.
Contested divorce. If you and your spouse can’t agree on one or more issues, the divorce becomes contested. These cases are often more complex, expensive and time-consuming, potentially requiring mediation, arbitration or trial to settle.
Legal separation. You can choose to live separately and divide assets and debts without officially ending the marriage. This option is sometimes chosen for religious reasons or to maintain benefits such as health insurance. Legal separation in California can also serve as a preliminary step before divorce.
Summary dissolution. This simplified divorce process is for couples married for less than five years, without children, and with minimal assets and debts. In this type of divorce, neither spouse can request spousal support and the couple must agree on asset and debt division.
Annulment. An annulment declares that a marriage was never legally valid due to reasons like fraud, bigamy or force.
Domestic partnership termination. Registered domestic partners in California can end their partnership by filing a Notice of Termination or dissolution.

These options mean you can choose the path best suited for your situation. The no-fault approach in California simplifies the divorce process by eliminating the need to prove wrongdoing by either party.

Child Custody, Support and Visitation in California

California prioritizes the child’s best interests when making custody, support and visitation-related decisions.

Child custody. You and the other parent have equal rights to custody. If the other parent is unable or unwilling to take custody or has abandoned the child, you can seek sole custody. California recognizes two types of custody.
- Legal custody. This involves the right to make decisions about the child’s welfare, health and education. While sole legal custody allows you to make these decisions independently, joint legal custody gives the other parent an input in decision-making.
- Physical custody. This pertains to where the child lives. Sole physical custody means the child lives primarily with one parent and does not spend time with the other parent, while joint physical custody means the child splits time between both parents.
Child support. Child support covers the child’s basic needs and is calculated using a state formula that considers both parents’ incomes, the amount of time spent with the child and other factors.
Visitation. If you spend less than half the time with the child, you have visitation rights. However, if the court finds that visitation would harm the child’s physical or emotional well-being, it may be restricted or denied.

Property Division in California

As a community property state, California mandates that property, assets, income (including things bought with that income), retirement benefits and debts incurred during your marriage be split equally upon divorce. For instance, if you buy a car with income earned during the marriage, that car becomes community property, even if it’s only in your name.

However, some exceptions exist. Assets or debts you acquired before the marriage or after separation, as well as gifts or inheritances you received individually during the marriage, are considered your separate property and not subject to division.

Regarding alimony or spousal support in California—the court may award alimony to the lower-earning spouse after divorce to cover their monthly expenses till they become self-sufficient.

California recognizes two forms of alimony:

Temporary spousal support. The judge may require the higher-earning spouse to pay temporary spousal support, which is aimed at maintaining the living standards of the lower-earning spouse while the divorce is pending. This support typically lasts until the divorce is finalized.
Long-term spousal support. Long-term spousal support, on the other hand, is determined at the time of finalizing the divorce. The court considers a host of factors like your age, health, future earning capacity, contributions to your spouse’s education or career and any history of domestic violence. The aim is to provide financial assistance until the lower-earning spouse becomes self-sufficient.

The duration of spousal support isn’t mandated but is often expected to last for about half the length of the marriage, except in long-term marriages. For example, in a four-year marriage, you might receive or pay alimony for two years, but in a 30-year marriage, the duration varies based on individual circumstances.

Spousal support ends if the recipient remarries or if either spouse passes away.

Filing and Serving Your Divorce Papers

To start a divorce or legal separation in California, you need to fill out two main court forms: the Petition (Form FL-100) and the Summons (Form FL-110). If you have children or are seeking spousal support, you need additional forms. All required forms are available on the California Courts website or at your local courthouse.

After filling out the forms, file them at your local courthouse. You can do this in person, by mail or, in some cases, through e-filing. Filing fees are typically between $435 and $450, but if you’re facing financial challenges, you can apply for a fee waiver.

Once you filed the documents, an adult (other than yourself), known as the server, must serve the papers to your spouse. The server then needs to complete the Proof of Service form (FL-115) and return it to the court, verifying that your spouse has received the documents.

Finalizing Your Divorce

In California, completing a divorce includes a mandatory six-month waiting period, starting from when your spouse is officially served with the divorce papers. This period is intended to provide time for you and your spouse to reconsider and possibly reconcile.

After you submit the final form, you have the option of reaching a settlement. If you cannot, you will have a trial and the judge will decide all the issues in your divorce. Once a settlement or judgment is reached, the judge grants the divorce.

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San Diego, CA

San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s Elephant Valley: Get closer to elephants

Published

53 seconds ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s Elephant Valley: Get closer to elephants

Todd Martens
| Los Angeles Times

San Diego — Before we see elephants at Elephant Valley in the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, we come face to face with destruction, only the wreckage is beautiful. A long, winding path takes guests around and under felled trees. Aged gray tree hunks form arches, for instance, over bridges that tower over clay-colored paths with hoof prints.

The design is meant to reorient us, to take us on a trail walked not by humans but traversed and carved by elephants, a creature still misunderstood, vilified and hunted for its cataclysmic-like ability to reshape land, and sometimes communities.

“It starts,” says Kristi Burtis, vice president of wildlife care for the Safari Park, “by telling the story that elephants are ecosystem engineers.”

Elephant Valley will open March 5 as the newest experience at the Escondido park, its aim to bring guests closer than ever to the zoo’s eight elephants, which range in age from 7 to 36, while more heavily focusing on conservation. The centerpiece of the 13-acre-plus parkland is a curved bridge overlooking a savanna, allowing elephants to walk under guests. But there are also nooks such as a cave that, while not previewed at a recent media event, will allow visitors to view elephants on their level.

In a shift from, say, the Safari Park’s popular tram tour, there are no fences and visible enclosures. Captive elephants remain a sometimes controversial topic, and the zoo’s herd is a mix of rescues and births, but the goal was to create a space where humans are at once removed and don’t impede on the relative free-roaming ability of the animals by keeping guests largely elevated. As an example of just how close people can get to the herd, there was a moment of levity at the event when one of the elephants began flinging what was believed to be a mixture of dirt and feces up onto the bridge.

“Our guests are going to be able to see the hairs on an elephant,” Burtis says. “They can see their eyes. They can see the eyelashes. They can see how muscular their trunks are. It’s really going to be a different experience.”

Elephant Valley, complete with a multistory lodge with open-air restaurants and bars, boasts a natural design that isn’t influenced by the elephant’s African home so much as it is in conversation with it. The goal isn’t to displace us, but to import communal artistry — Kenyan wood and beadwork can be found in the pathways, resting spaces and more — as a show of admiration rather than imitation.

“We’re not going to pretend that we’re taking people to Africa,” says Fri Forjindam, now a creative executive with Universal’s theme parks but previously a lead designer on Elephant Valley via her role as a chief development officer at Mycotoo, a Pasadena-based experiential design firm.

“That is a slippery slope of theming that can go wrong really fast,” she adds. “How do we recognize where we are right now, which is near San Diego? How do we populate this plane with plants that are indigenous to the region? The story of coexistence is important. We’re not extracting from Africa, we’re learning. We’re not extracting from elephants, we’re sharing information.”

But designing a space that is elephant-first yet also built for humans presented multiple challenges, especially when the collaborating teams were aiming to construct multiple narratives around the animals. Since meetings about Elephant Valley began around 2019, the staff worked to touch on themes related to migration and conservation. And there was also a desire to personalize the elephants.

“Where can we also highlight each of the elephants by name, so they aren’t just this huge herd of random gray creatures?” Forjindam says. “You see that in the lodge.”

That lodge, the Mkutano House — a phrase that means “gathering” in Swahili — should provide opportunities for guests to linger, although zoo representatives say reservations are recommended for those who wish to dine in the space (there will also be a walk-up, to-go window). Menus have yet to be released, but the ground floor of the structure, boasting hut-like roofing designed to blend into the environment, features close views of the elephant grazing pool as well as an indoor space with a centerpiece tree beneath constellation-like lighting to mimic sunrises and sunsets.

Throughout there are animal wood carvings and beadwork, the latter often hung from sculptures made of tree branches. The ceiling, outfitted with colorful, cloth tapestries designed to move with the wind, aims to create less friction between indoor and outdoor environments.

There are, of course, research and educational goals of the space as well. The Safari Park works, for instance, with the Northern Rangelands Trust and Loisaba Conservancy in Kenya, with an emphasis on studying human-elephant conflict and finding no-kill resolutions. Nonprofits and conservation groups estimate that there are today around 415,000 elephants in Africa, and the African savanna elephant is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Studies of the zoo’s young elephants is shared with the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in the hopes of delivering care to elephant youth to prevent orphanage. Additionally, the Safari Park has done extensive examination into the endotheliotropic herpes virus. “The data that we collect from elephants here, you can’t simply get from elephants in the wild,” Burtis says.

One of the two entrances to Elephant Valley is outfitted with bee boxes; bees are known to be a natural elephant deterrent and can help in preventing the animals from disrupting crops or communities. To encourage more natural behavior, the plane is outfitted with timed feeders in an attempt to encourage movement throughout the acreage and establish a level of real-life unpredictability in hunting for resources. Water areas have been redesigned with ramps and steps to make it easier for the elephants to navigate.

With Elephant Valley, Forjindam says the goal was to allow visitors to “observe safely in luxury — whatever that is — but not from a position of power, more as a cohabitor of the Earth, with as much natural elements as possible. It’s not to impose dominance. Ultimately, it needed to feel natural. It couldn’t feel like a man-made structure, which is an antiquated approach to any sort of safari experience where animals are the product, a prize. In this experience, this is the elephant’s home.”

And the resulting feel of Elephant Valley is that we, the paying customers, are simply their house guests.

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San Diego, CA

Man fatally struck by hit-and-run vehicle in San Diego

Published

12 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Man fatally struck by hit-and-run vehicle in San Diego

A man in the Mission Bay Park community of San Diego was fatally struck Sunday morning by a hit-and run vehicle, authorities said.

The victim was also struck by a second vehicle and that motorist stayed at the scene to cooperate with officers, the San Diego Police Department reported.

The initial crash occurred at about 2:20 a.m. Sunday in the area of West Mission Bay and Sea World drives.

The pedestrian was in the southbound lanes of the 2000 block of West Mission Bay Drive when he was struck by a silver vehicle also in the southbound lanes. That vehicle fled the scene, continuing southbound, police said.

A 28-year-old man driving his vehicle southbound ran over the downed pedestrian.

“That driver remained at the scene and is not DUI,” according to a police statement. “The pedestrian was pronounced deceased at the scene.”

Anyone with information regarding the initial crash was urged to call Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.

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San Diego, CA

Here are the 9 San Diego County communities that set or tied heat records

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Here are the 9 San Diego County communities that set or tied heat records

San Diego County is known for having wet, cold weather in February. But it had numerous hot spells this year. And when the month ended on Saturday a high pressure system produced heat that broke or tied temperature records in nine communities from the desert to the sea, the National Weather Service said.

The most notable temperature occurred in Borrego Springs, which reached 99, five degrees higher than the previous record for Feb. 28, set in 1986. The 99 reading is also the highest temperature ever recorded in Borrego in February.

Escondido reached 95, tying a record set in 1901.

El Cajon reached 92, three degrees higher than the record set in 2009.

Ramona topped out at 88, five degrees higher than the record set in 2009.

Alpine hit 88, four degrees higher the record set in 1986.

Campo reached 87, four degrees higher than the record set in 1999.

Vista hit 86, four degrees higher than the record set in 2020.

Chula Vista reached 84, one degree higher than the record set in 2020.

Lake Cuyamaca rose to 76, four degrees higher than the record set in 1986.

Forecasters say the weather is not likely to broadly produce new highs on Sunday. Cooler air is moving to the coast, and on Monday, San Diego’s high will only reach 67, a degree above normal.

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