$7,500 Needs-Based Fee Order In Husband’s Favor Affirmed on Appeal.
In Marriage of Delgado, Case No. D060905 (4th Dist., Div. 1 Dec. 24, 2013) (unpublished), wife’s requests for needs-based fees and Family Code section 271 sanctions were denied, with ex-husband eventually obtaining a needs-based fee order which wife had to pay to the tune of $7,500 based on the family judge’s perception she had more litigating power.
That determination was sustained on appeal. The reasons primarily were two-fold: (1) the lower court properly considered new husband’s extraordinary income in ex-wife’s new household financial picture, because her household income was 5-10 times greater than ex-husband’s income (and this factor was properly considered under Family Code section 2030, although expressly recognized as a factor in fashioning child support awards); and (2) ex-wife’s new father-in-law was apparently representing her and not billing/collecting for the case which put ex-husband at another disadvantage (In re Marriage of Paulin, 46 Cal.App.4th 1378, 1385 (1996)).