Helgestad

I. INTRODUCTION

Family law is not getting any easier. Consider this scenario: A couple live together and have two children. They do not marry. Then they separate. The couple agrees to a paternity action judgment, which establishes the father’s paternity, his right to visitation, and fixes a monthly monetary child support payment to be made to the mother, who will have primary physical custody of the children. Later the couple attempt a reconciliation; the father moves into the residence of the children and the mother. After about nine months, the reconciliation fails, and the father moves out. Issue: Can the father obtain any credit for actual, in-the-home child support he afforded the children during the nine months he lived with them and the mother?

The question is one of first impression in California. (See Annot., Right to Credit on Child Support Arrearages for Time Parties Resided Together After Separation or Divorce (2002) 104 A.L.R.5th 605 , 610-612 [absence of Cal. cases] (hereinafter A.L.R. Annotation, Credit for Time Resided.) Had the original order been made in a marital — as distinct from paternity — action, and had the couple simply switched custody so that…