Law Office Of Brian Lanz

Brian Lanz provides caring, efficient and effective legal service to clients throughout Sonoma County. He enjoys having his own practice, because it allows him to focus his work more directly on the needs and goals of the client. Brian attended college in Santa Rosa and Chico California and then attended Empire LawSchool, where he obtained his Juris Doctorate degree.

Child custody is often the most difficult area of family law because it involves trying to reach an outcome that is in the best interests of the children involved. Unlike other areas of the law, the two parties are both aiming for the same objective, the best interests of their children, it's just that they usually have different opinions on what that is.

The purpose of child support is to ensure that a child's financial necessities are taken care of and that the child's standard of living stays consistent with their pre-divorce care. California judges follow statutory guidelines when determining child support.

These guidelines set forth a complex set of factors that take into account the total income of each parent, certain deductible expenses, as well as how much time the child spends with each parent.A parent can only be sure the child support award is proper when they have a clear understanding of these factors and how they apply to their individual situation.

One of the benefits of marriage is that both spouses can achieve a higher standard of living than they could have on their own. Often, this is accomplished by placing one spouse's career first while the other spouse forgoes career opportunities to allow the family to move as required by the higher paid spouse's job or to stay home to take care of the children.

Property division in the Santa Rosa area follows California's community property law. This law provides that in almost all situations, the assets acquired during a marriage are to be divided equally.

Complications arise in many situations, including when separate property is brought into the marriage and paid for all or in part by the community, when separate property funds are used to buy marital property and/or when separate property is acquired during the marriage.Most spouses don't keep a formal accounting of separate property, as they aren't planning for a divorce.