Reason: Court Did Not Consider Each Side’s Financial Needs or Other Relevant Factors.
In our category “Cases: Family Law Awards,” we have had occasion to examine cases awarding attorney’s fees to one side under Family Code sections 2030 and 2032. A family law judge must consider certain statutory factors in making fee awards under these provisions, which focus mainly upon the financial positions, abilities to pay, and needs of each side to the dispute. As the next case demonstrates, even though fee awards are reviewed under the deferential abuse of discretion standard, they will be reversed where the record shows the lower court did not consider the relevant factors.
Justice Fybel, writing for a 3-0 panel of the Fourth District, Division 3, reversed a family law fees award on this very basis in In re Marriage of Gonzalez, Case No. G040037 (4th Dist., Div. 3 Jan. 30, 2009) (unpublished). Wife was ordered to pay husband a fee award of $20,000 primarily under sections 2030 and 2032. However, the family law judge’s order did not reflect a consideration of the financial factors mentioned above, even though this was a necessary prerequisite. (In re Marriage of Lynn, 101 Cal.App.4th 120, 133-134 (2002); In re Marriage of Cheriton, 92 Cal.App.4th 269, 315 (2001); In re Marriage of Keech, 75 Cal.App.4th 860, 866 (1999).) Husband apparently did not present any evidence in support of the award, such as income/expense declarations or testimony about the fees actually spent by Husband. The $20,000 award went POOF!, because “the record contains nothing on which an attorney fee award could have been based.”