Fam. Code, § 20000 · Chapter 1. General Provisions
Fam. Code, § 20000
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(1) Child and spousal support are serious legal obligations. In addition, children are frequently left in limbo while their parents engage in protracted litigation concerning custody and visitation. The current system for obtaining child and spousal support orders is suffering because the family courts are unduly burdened with heavy case loads and personnel insufficient to meet the needs of increased demands on the courts.
(2) There is a compelling state interest in the development of a child and spousal support system that is cost-effective and accessible to families with middle or low incomes.
(3) There is a compelling state interest in first implementing such a system on a small scale.
(4) There is a compelling state interest in the development of a speedy, conflict-reducing method of resolving custody and visitation disputes.
(b) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this part to provide a means for experimenting with and evaluating procedural innovations with significant potential to improve the California child and spousal support systems, and the system for mediation, evaluation, and litigation of custody and visitation disputes.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Added by Stats. 1993, Ch. 219, Sec. 210. Effective January 1, 1994.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FAM§ionNum=20000.
- Text hash
- sha256 570703a6bc5df68b1a70cbff5523b1dcff44a87048be0d800f0291c979f9c4dd
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.