Ex-Husband’s Checking Boxes On Form Order Did Not Solve The Problem.
Family Code section 2030(a)(2) for a few years has required that family law judges explain why or why not a needs-based award was granted/denied based on statutory factors.
Our local Santa Ana Court of Appeal, in Marriage of Shimkus, Case Nos. G050323/G050599 (4th Dist., Div. 3 Feb.18, 2016) (published), held that a trial judge’s denial of a needs-based fee award to ex-wife had to be reversed because it had no findings when the lower court simply denied the fee request. The trial judge said both sides should bear their own fees. Ex-husband argued that this failure was “cured” by his counsel submitting a form order where certain boxes were checked subsequently by the family law judge despite a failure to make findings at any prior junctures of the proceedings. Not good enough, Justice Thompson (on behalf of a 3-0 panel) wrote, given the absence of “true” findings on the record below as section 2030(a)(2) mandates.