Legal Question in Family Law in California

This is possible, if you mean "could the new wife be held responsible?" If the father stops paying because he says he lost his job, but he continues to live well because bof the salary of his new wife, sometimes the courts will assess the family unit...not JUST the father....in determining whether payments should be made. This has been done because many fathers have been caught "hiding behind" the salary of their spouse in order to avoid payment of support to prior wife.

The income of the new spouse is not to be used to satisfy child support if it is placed in an account that the olbigor spouse (the one paying child support) does not have access to.

Brear is absolutely wrong. Child support is calculated only on the earnings of the parent of the supported child. The parent's new spouse's income cannot be used as a matter of law, except to the extent it affects taxation and any other deductions of the paying parent's income. If the paying parent is voluntarily not working, however, the courts have the power to impute the income that would be earned if the parent worked. If the parent then does not pay, community assets, including the paychecks of the new spouse, can be used to pay the debt. That is where Mr. Roach's answer comes in. If the paying parent doesn't pay, and the new spouse segregates their pay, it cannot be reached, though any other community assets can be. More importantly, however, if the parent ordered to pay doesn't pay, there will be far worse consequences than worrying about whether the new spouse's pay will be taken, such as loss of drivers license, loss of professional licenses, loss of passport, and possibly jail time.