Belongings have been reduced to what can fit inside a see-through plastic bag.
We were told we had to be seated by 8:20. We started our test at 9:45. The proctor misread "pencil" and several other words. She took long pauses. She kept telling us to be quiet.
I took out an earplug at one point and heard a great big clattering of keys, much louder than the tapping during my final exams.
Nothing but the screen for 3 hours.
Brief break of sunlight.
Fingerprinted ourselves. Screen for 3 hours.
Sat through another 30 minutes of instructions from the lady who cannot read. Seriously, the other testing room left 40 minutes before we did. Where are the evals when you need them?
"She was supposed to buy ya shorty Tyco with ya money She went to the doctor got lipo with ya money She walkin' around lookin' like Michael with ya money Shoulda' got that insured, GEICO for ya moneeey(your money) If you ain't no punk holla' we want pre-nup WE WANT PRE-NUP!, yeah It's something that you need to have 'Cause when she leave yo' ass she gon' leave with half 18 years, 18 years And on her 18th birthday, he found out it wasn't his?"
What up Kanye, I'mma let you finish...as soon I do a quick legal analysis.
Issue
You've got people in the club hollering they want pre-nups. Is it something that you need to have? Is it going to prevent her from "leaving with half?" You seem to have two issues: 1) You don't want to pay child support and 2) You don't want your spouse walking off with your assets.
Rules
California is a community property state. This means that any property acquired during marriage is presumptively property of both spouses. This includes salary and wages earned by either spouse. Is that what you meant when you said she's going to leave with half? You're right, in CA, she gets to leave with her half of what you earned just as you get to leave with half of what she earned. This is the default rule.
You can contract around the default rule with a pre-marital or pre-nuptial agreement. You can agree to just about anything in a pre-nuptial agreement. For example, you can agree that each party's salary and wages will remain separate property. You can also limit spousal support or have your spouse waive it entirely. The sky's limit! Or is it??
You cannot limit either party's contribution to furnish child support, which leads us to our first issue.
Child support obligations
Sorry Kanye, she is going to walk around looking like Michael with your money whether or not you have a pre-nup. You can't contract around child support.
But what if it wasn't yours? Well, any child born to a married couple is presumed to be the biological child of that couple. A married man may bring a suit to establish paternity, but the window on this is narrow. After two years, you can no longer initiate a paternity suit. I guess it doesn't matter in this scenario anyway, because your spouse isn't going to tell you until he turns 18.
Right to half the assets
This is a right that you can contract around. You can both agree that your respective salaries will remain separate property. You can both waive the right to spousal support.
However, you still have to be careful! You can't foist a piece of paper and expect your lady friend to sign on the dotted line. The agreement will be invalid if she was not represented by independent counsel and given at least 7 days to sign OR she was not fully informed of all the terms in the writing (she'll have to sign a separate document acknowledging this) and given at least 7 days to sign.
Additionally, the court can later decide that the waiver of spousal support is unenforceable. If the agreement, at the time of enforcement (not the time that it was made), was so unfair that to enforce it would be unconscionable, the court will not give it any effect. You may still have to pay child support after paying fancy lawyers for drawing up a pre-nup due to changed circumstances.
Conclusion
Pre-nup, is it a good thing to have? Sure.
Is it going to solve that mess you've described? Only half. ;)
Most of my friends who've been to karaoke with me know: 1) I only rap and 2) 99 problems is one of my go-to songs, because of the legal references in the 2nd verse.
Hov, I know that you haven't passed the bar (and neither have I), but you know a little bit. Are the cops really illegally searching your shit?
Let's put this through a cursory crim pro analysis.
"My glove compartment is locked."
Excellent. Locking something shows that you have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the area to be searched. Generally, the police cannot search without probable cause and the lack of a search warrant is presumptively lack of probable cause. Also, telling him this impliedly negates consent.
However, you are in an automobile and the police had reasonable suspicion to pull you over. (You were doing 55 in a 54.) They have a right to ask you to step out of the car and according to the Terry stop-and-frisk doctrine, if you are unsecured (this means they haven't put you in handcuffs or placed you in the squad car), they CAN look in your passenger side to prevent destruction of evidence or if they think you are dangerous. (which the officer probably does b/c he thinks you are carrying a weapon)
Your trunk
The police can also search your trunk (and any containers within it) whether or not it's locked if they have probable cause to believe that there may be evidence of a crime or contraband in the car. Remember what we said before about the presumption of lack of probable cause if no search warrant? This doesn't apply to automobiles due to the "lower expectation of privacy" in a vehicle and the fact that the car is readily mobile ( you can take off with the contraband and evidence at any time--thus it's more of emergency enabling them to search right away).
So, through a very cursory bar level analysis, they probably had the right to search both.
Posts
