Marriage of Lim and Carrasco CA6

I. INTRODUCTION

In this marital dissolution action, appellant Michael Carrasco challenges the trial court’s December 8, 2011 order directing respondent Lily Lim to pay him monthly temporary spousal support of $2,705 and monthly child support of $1,568, based on Lira’s earnings of $22,076 per month while working an 80 percent schedule as an attorney. Carrasco contends that the trial court abused its discretion in calculating support on Lira’s actual income of $22,076 from her reduced work schedule, rather than her earnings capacity of approximately $27,595 per month when employed as a full-time attorney.

For reasons that we will explain, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in calculating Lira’s support obligations on the basis of her reduced income and we will affirm the December 8, 2011 order.

H. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Lim and Carrasco were married in 2003 and separated in 2011. They have two children who were both under the age of five when Carrasco filed a petition for dissolution of marriage on August 22, 2011. Carrasco dismissed the petition without prejudice on August 25, 2011. The record reflects that after an attempt at…