2024 October - CSDA Legal College Sessions

October Managing and Lead Attorney Forum

San Diego’s Trolley system, which began service in July 1981, has 62 stops covering 68 miles of track.  It is crucial to the city as it requires nothing more than a modest fare to transport patrons everywhere from Old Town to San Ysidro.  Our speakers have built their own “trolley line,” and they will make stops at three important stations today: Legislation, Regulations & Policy, and Case Law Updates. Your registration covers your ticket price, and no transfers between trolleys will be necessary.  All aboard!  Please stand clear…the doors are closing…and get ready to travel to our child support “destinations” which will leave you well-schooled and fluent in the latest updates in these areas of the California IV-D program.

Every state has a birthplace, and San Diego’s Old Town district is California’s. Since being settled by the Kumeyaay people 12,000 years ago and subsequently claimed by explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542, Old Town has experienced much change over the centuries to become a gathering place of rich, diverse culture, museums, and notable historical sites. Junipero Serra wrote that Old Town is “beautiful to behold and does not belie its reputation.” While the California’s Statewide Uniform Guideline may not be “beautiful to behold,” its reputation as the foundation of child support order is well established. But how has it changed since it was first introduced? What further changes are forthcoming with the advent of SB 343? Come join our esteemed GLC experts and amateur historians as they take you on a journey from the birth of the Guideline itself to its modern day place as an indispensable tool in the IV-D world of California.

A blanket of trees surrounds you as you enter the forest of the workers’ compensation arena.  Just like the San Diego County Forest trails, this presentation has something for everyone!  For less experienced hikers, we offer an overview of Worker’s compensation process and the role the DCSS attorney plays in that process.  For those nature and fitness enthusiasts, up for a more challenging journey, enjoy the breathtaking views, and learn tips and tricks for navigating and defending our DCSS liens.  Don’t get lost in the trees.  Let us be your tour guide through the loops and trails that make up the WC world.

Only in San Diego can you go from visiting beautiful botanical, rose and cactus gardens to exploring science, history and in even Comic-Con museums, all in one day! Like the park, self-employment covers a vast array of sights, sounds and experiences that child support attorneys will see in one day. In this course we will learn to read and understand the tax returns of various types of self-employed participants. We will go beyond looking at a Schedule C of sole proprietors and look at the tax returns of other 'self-employed' participants. This course offers handy cheat sheets and common questions to ask self-employed participants to help you figure out and calculate their income available for child support. This course also offers citable case law to support your position.

Come join us as we learn to navigate twists and turns bigger than the Giant Dipper Roller Coaster as we explore the many aspects of the gig economy. We will unravel the complexities of finding gig economy income and share ideas about best practices for enforcement. You won’t need to scream, nor will you be scared of a downward plunge after attending this illuminating presentation.

Join us as we fly through the fundamentals of evidence in a child support case and how to overcome the challenges of presenting evidence in a virtual hearing world. We will soar through the important considerations in presenting your case- from using statutory presumptions, laying your foundation for documents, to getting your evidence marked and entered. We will also take a breakneck ride through how to avoid incoming objections to your evidence and how to maneuver your way through them to come out of your trial as the “Top Gun”.

Embark on an adventure through special enforcement, with your tour guides Dr. Henry Walton (aka Indiana Jones), Orsolya Sabado (aka Orsi), and Paul Johnson (aka “no aka”). In this course you will raid the arc of writs and liens, travel through the temple of QDRO doom, and embark on the last crusade of probate enforcement. Other exciting adventures will include breaking the kingdom of the crystal skull (also known as reverse piercing) and checking the dial of destiny to see if your crusades can turn out any fortune through child support trust accounts and provide best practices for navigating the wilds of coercive enforcement such as debtor exams and contempts.

San Diego isn’t just a travel destination, it’s also home to over 110,000 active-duty personnel and seven military bases. Hoping to check out Top Gun? Unfortunately, Maverick packed up and moved flight school to an air base in the desert. But, our speakers promise to take us on a tour of San Diego’s historic Naval and Marine bases and military monuments as they offer a detailed overview of common issues involved in working with our military families. After this class you may be ready to grab some chow at the world-famous Kansas City BBQ not far from the USS Midway. Sorry, Maverick and the gang probably won’t be there, either.

During this session, we will journey up the coast to Swami’s beach as we wander along the shores of competence in the legal profession and embark on a path of understanding the impact of substances such as alcohol and drugs have on us and our colleagues. As we venture through the seaside towns together, we will gain a better understanding of substance use and abuse, learn to recognize the signs of substance abuse, the mental health challenges that can impact our use of alcohol and drugs and learn some valuable tools, tips and techniques for grounding ourselves in the ever-changing tide that is our profession.

Live from the Gaslamp District, the home of Comic-Con. Just like superheroes in your favorite comics, lawyers face ethical questions on a regular basis. Many involve commonplace problems that don’t require complex legal research superpowers and can be easily addressed by a straightforward application of the Rules of Professional Conduct. Much like a battle with Lex Luther, other dilemmas are not so easily unraveled, often requiring what seems like a utility belt of tools, information or even a sidekick to resolve. Resolution may require analyzing a complex web of rules and other authorities. Armed only with their knowledge and expertise, participants will join our honorary Justice Society of super-presenters in analyzing and untangling ethical knots drawn from real-life circumstances and, in doing so, prove that they can overcome ethical adversity without the need of either a mask or a shield. Costumes welcomed.

It’s a zoo out there in the legal community and sometimes opposing counsel can be quite a bear. But that does not mean that we need to act like badly behaved animals towards each other. Join us for a discussion about civility in the legal profession and satisfy the newest MCLE requirement. We will discuss how and why we should act civilly towards each other, and more importantly, what NOT to do when handling difficult opposing counsels.