Legal Question in Family Law in California

Most likely, yes. If the attorney is only going to be with you for the hearing and not take over the whole case, they will want to file a notice of limited scope representation. It is not required, but it would be a bad idea for an attorney to do that without filing the notice so there is no ambiguity that they might be taking over the entire case. Anything that is filed by the court must be served on the other party as well. If the attorney is taking over the entire case, again the court must be notified, in that case by a substitution of attorney from pro per to the attorney you hire. Again, what is filed must be served on the other side.