Legal Question in Family Law in California
My ex is allowing me to have full physical custody of our 16-1/2 year old daughter....we all feel it would be in her best interest. BUT, he won't give her her clothes that he bought for her. I think this is insane! Is there something legally I can do? Aren't her clothes considered "gifts"? He also doesn't want to pay me any child support.
1 Answer from Attorneys
A court is not going to be interested in bickering over some clothes. There is an old latin phrase in the law "de minimis non curat lex," which means "the law does not concern itself with trifles." As for child support, there is no way to tell if there is any kind of case to be made for zero support. In cases where the custodial parent makes so vastly much more than the non-custodial parent that the payments would really be meaningless and unnecessary, the court may approve zero support, but in most other cases, especially if one parent has no custody at all, the court does not even really have the power to order zero support.