Marriage of Hoch CA4/3

INTRODUCTION

Marcie Hoch and Michael Hoch1 were married in September 1999. In February 2023, Marcie filed a petition for legal separation, which she later amended to allege marital dissolution. Both Marcie and Michael are practicing members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses faith, a fact of significance to this matter, and both have filed notices of appeal. In his appeal, Michael challenges four orders issued by the family court: (1) an order imposing monetary sanctions against him pursuant to Family Code section 2712 based on his refusal to stipulate to permitting Marcie to amend her petition for legal separation to seek marital dissolution; (2) an order imposing monetary sanctions against him pursuant to section 2107, subdivision (c) (section 2107(c)) for failing to serve a timely and compliant preliminary declaration of disclosure; (3) an order imposing monetary sanctions against him pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure sections 2023.030 and 2031.310, subdivision (h) (Code of Civil Procedure section 2031.310(h)) for failing to timely serve responses to Marcie’s request for production of documents that were compliant with the civil discovery statutes; and (4) a domestic violence…