Parent’s Ability to Pay Does Not Need to be Recalculated Every Time Minor’s Counsel Submits a Fee Bill.
Courts can issue orders appointing counsel to represent the child under Family Code section 3150 in dissolution actions. The court has wide discretion to make the parents, rather than the County, responsible for the counsel fees. (Fam. Code, § 3153(a).) In the next case, mother lost an appeal of a lower court decision ordering her to pay over $21,000 in fees for minor’s counsel.
In Marriage of Heierle and Assawasuksant, Case No. A121688 (1st Dist., Div. 4 Sept. 10, 2009) (unpublished), the lower court ordered parents to split the fees of an attorney appointed by the court to represent a minor (even though initially the County was paying the tab). The family judge then ordered mother to pay over $21,000 in fees (her share). She was unhappy, and appealed.
She lost. The appellate court found that the “fee split” order was clear and that mother was liable for her half. The obligation was on-going, such that the lower court did not need to recalculate her ability to pay every time a minor counsel submitted a fee bill—subject to a motion to redetermine ability to pay upon a demonstration of changed circumstances. The order was not an add-on child support, but an attorney appointment order. Mother needed to pay her part, found the appellate panel.