California Child Custody & Support, Made Simpler.
Navigating child custody or support doesn’t have to mean figuring everything out alone. DocDraft helps you understand your options, prepare personalized legal documents, and take the next step for your family—with attorney help available when you need it.
- Guided by AI
- Tailored to California
- Built around your situation
- saved on legal fees
- $100M+
- documents created
- 50,000+
- customers served
- 23,000+
- saved per matter
- $1,200
Your family is unique. Your legal documents should be, too.
Whether you’re establishing custody, changing an existing arrangement, or addressing child support, DocDraft helps you move forward with greater clarity and confidence.
Understand your next steps
Tell us about your family and what you’re trying to accomplish. We’ll help you organize the information relevant to your situation.
Prepare personalized documents
Get help drafting documents that reflect your circumstances and applicable California requirements.
Get legal help when you need it
Some family matters require more than paperwork. Connect with attorney-support options when professional guidance could make a difference.
What can DocDraft help you with?
Child Custody Agreements
Work toward clear arrangements that address legal and physical custody, responsibilities, and decisions affecting your child.
Visitation & Parenting Plans
Prepare proposed arrangements covering parenting time, holidays, exchanges, and other important details.
Child Support
Understand the information involved in establishing or addressing child support obligations in California.
Custody & Support Modifications
Prepare to request changes to an existing court order when your circumstances have changed.
Responding to Custody Cases
Organize your information and get help preparing an appropriate response to a custody or support proceeding.
Co-Parenting Agreements
Document practical expectations and responsibilities to help both parents move forward.
How it works
Tell us about your family
Answer straightforward questions about your situation, existing arrangements, and what you’d like to change or establish.
Get help preparing your documents
DocDraft helps you organize the relevant details and prepare personalized paperwork.
Take your next step
Review your documents, understand the steps ahead, and explore attorney assistance if needed.
- Tell me what happened.
- We need a parenting time plan for our two kids in California.
- Which California county is this in?
- Los Angeles County
- What would you like this document to do?
- A weekly schedule with holidays and school breaks.
- Parenting schedule outlineFirst draft ready to review
The children will follow a weekly schedule, with holidays and school breaks shared as set out below.
Understanding child custody and support in California
California law separates legal custody, the right to make decisions about a child's health, education, and welfare, from physical custody, which is where the child lives. Either can be joint or sole, and a parent without physical custody usually has visitation, also called parenting time.
Custody and visitation may be decided as part of a divorce or legal separation, or in a separate case between parents. When parents disagree about custody or visitation, the court generally sends them to mediation with Family Court Services before deciding the contested issues.
Courts decide custody based on the child's best interest, with the child's health, safety, and welfare as primary concerns. Child support is calculated under California's statewide guideline, which generally considers both parents' incomes and how much time the child spends with each parent.
If you already have a court order, changing it generally requires asking the court for a modification. A private agreement alone does not change an existing order.
DocDraft helps you get organized and prepare for the process.
Bring your draft. Ask your questions.
Some questions call for more than paperwork. Explore document review and consultation options with a licensed attorney.
12. Security deposit. Landlord will refund the deposit, less deductions for damage beyond normal wear and tear1, or an itemized statement of deductions with any remaining balance, within 21 days after Tenant vacates.
Does carpet wear from two years of normal living count as damage?
18. Default. If rent is late, Landlord may serve Tenant a written notice to pay rent or quit within three days2, not counting Saturdays, Sundays, or judicial holidays; if Tenant does not pay in full within that time, Landlord may file an unlawful detainer action.
If I get the notice on a Thursday, which day is my last day to pay?
Your questions, answered
Take the next step for your family.
You don’t have to have every answer before getting started. Tell DocDraft about your situation and begin working toward a clearer path forward.
- Personalized documents
- Clear next steps
- Attorney help when you need it
