The resources below contain helpful information for people who either have family-related lawsuits or who are considering initiating family lawsuits in the geographic areas where I work.
Selected pages from the online help center at the California courts website:
- Divorce and legal separation
- Child custody and visitation
- Child support
- Lawsuits to establish parental relationships
- Child abuse and neglect
- Domestic violence (includes all types of abuse and harassment by family members and roommates)
- Abuse of persons 65 and older and dependent adults
- Civil harassment (includes all types of abuse, harassment, and stalking not by family members or roommates and not against elder or dependent adults)
- Guardianship
- Adoption
- Waivers of court fees
- Service of process (i.e. procedures for official delivery of documents to parties in lawsuits)
California law (including Family Code, Code of Civil Procedure, etc.)
County court websites (there’s plenty more useful information here):
Case information websites where you can check the status of your case if you have a divorce or child support case already open:
Santa Clara County Public Access Case Information Website
San Mateo County Online Case Access
Child Protective Services telephone numbers:
Santa Clara County:
North 650-493-1186
South 408-683-0601
Central 408-299-2071
San Francisco
415-558-2650
800-856-5553
San Mateo
650-595-7922
650-802-7922
800-632-4615
National Domestic Violence Hotline:
- Telephone number: 1-800-799-7233
- Main page
- Definition of abuse
From the Santa Clara County Social Services Agency: