GENERAL
INFORMATION:
SANTA BARBARA OFFICE:
Family Court Services
1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 568-3133
SANTA MARIA OFFICE:
Family Court Services
201 South Miller St., Ste. 208, Santa Maria, CA 93454
(805) 346-1476
The Family Law Facilitator is an attorney who can help you to represent
yourself in limited family law matters. You can get help with an existing
case or in starting a case. You can get help if you are the petitioner or
the respondent.
If you work with the Family Law Facilitator, you are responsible for processing
your own case. The Facilitator can help you to select the proper legal forms
and to complete them, serve them and get them filed with the clerk's office.
If you need to go to court to present your case to a judge or commissioner,
however, you will present your case alone. In some situations, an interpreter
may be available to help with translation in court.
The Family Law Facilitator is not your attorney. There is no attorney-client
relationship between you and the Family Law Facilitator. The facilitator
can equally help you and the other party (for example, your former spouse,
the parent of your child, etc.). Anyone is welcome to ask for help from
the facilitator. If you want help with your case strategy, you should consult
with your own attorney for that kind of legal advice.
When you speak with the Family Law Facilitator, your conversation is not
private or confidential. As a policy the facilitator does not want to talk
about your case with anyone. If the facilitator is subpoenaed to court,
however, there is no attorney-client privilege that would protect your conversation
and make it confidential.
The Family Law Facilitator can give you procedural direction in the following
types of cases:
- Department of Child Support Services (formerly known as District Attorney's
Family Support Division) child support cases, and
- Dissolution (divorce), legal separation, nullity (annulment) and
paternity cases:
- Child support issues
- Spousal support issues
- Child custody and visitation issues (limited assistance available)
- Initiating or finalizing a case (limited assistance available)
Dispute Resolution)
Family
Law Facilitator