California Family Code

§ 2032

FAM § 2032 Effective Jan 1, 2011Div. 6 · Part 1 · Ch. 3.5

Statute text

(a)The court may make an award of attorney’s fees and costs under Section 2030 or 2031 where the making of the award, and the amount of the award, are just and reasonable under the relative circumstances of the respective parties.

(b)In determining what is just and reasonable under the relative circumstances, the court shall take into consideration the need for the award to enable each party, to the extent practical, to have sufficient financial resources to present the party’s case adequately, taking into consideration, to the extent relevant, the circumstances of the respective parties described in Section 4320. The fact that the party requesting an award of attorney’s fees and costs has resources from which the party could pay the party’s own attorney’s fees and costs is not itself a bar to an order that the other party pay part or all of the fees and costs requested. Financial resources are only one factor for the court to consider in determining how to apportion the overall cost of the litigation equitably between the parties under their relative circumstances.

(c)The court may order payment of an award of attorney’s fees and costs from any type of property, whether community or separate, principal or income.

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Legislative history

Amended by Stats. 2010, Ch. 352, Sec. 5. (AB 939) Effective January 1, 2011.