California legal help

Choose a practice area to learn the essentials and find local help in your county.

• Bankruptcy

  Bankruptcy is governed by federal law, but California controls the exemptions that decide what property you keep. This hub explains how Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 work, the automatic stay that stops collection, and California's unusual choice between two state exemption systems — then links guides for each topic.

• Business Law

  Business law covers starting and running a California company — choosing the right entity, the filings and taxes that come with it, contracts, and resolving disputes. This hub explains the essentials in plain English, with the current Secretary of State and Franchise Tax Board requirements.

• Criminal Defense

  Criminal defense covers how charges are classified and how a case moves through the courts. In California, crimes are infractions, misdemeanors, or felonies, and some 'wobblers' can be charged either way. This hub explains the process and your rights, then links guides to common charges — the criminal process, DUI, drugs, theft, and assault.

• Employment Law

  California is an at-will employment state, but it gives workers some of the strongest protections in the country. State law bars discrimination under FEHA, requires daily overtime and double-time pay, mandates meal and rest breaks, and sets strict rules on final paychecks and paid leave. This hub explains the statewide essentials, then links a guide for each topic.

• Estate Planning & Administration

  Estate planning is how you decide who receives your property, who makes decisions if you become incapacitated, and how to spare your family the cost and delay of probate. This hub covers wills, revocable living trusts, ways to keep assets out of probate, and incapacity documents — in plain English, with the California law behind each.

• Family Law

  California family law lives in the Family Code. It's a pure no-fault divorce state with a six-month residency rule and a six-month minimum before a divorce is final, a community-property system that splits the marital estate equally, and a best-interest standard for custody. This hub explains the statewide essentials, then links a guide for each topic.

• Immigration

  Immigration is federal law, so the rules are the same nationwide — but the process plays out locally, through USCIS field offices and the federal immigration courts. This hub explains the basics in plain English: how the system works, green cards, family immigration, visas (including visas for victims), citizenship, and what happens in removal proceedings.

• Mediation

  Mediation is a voluntary, confidential way to resolve a dispute: a neutral mediator helps the people involved reach their own agreement instead of having a judge or arbitrator decide. This hub explains how mediation works in California, how it differs from arbitration, the strong confidentiality rules, and the mediation that's required in custody cases.

• Personal Injury

  Personal injury law covers harm caused by someone else's negligence — car and truck crashes, falls, dog bites, and medical errors. California is an at-fault state with a two-year deadline for most injury claims and a pure-comparative-negligence rule that reduces (but never erases) recovery by your share of fault. This hub explains the core rules, then links guides for each type of case.

• Probate

  Probate is the court-supervised process of settling a deceased person's estate. In California it is generally required when someone dies owning more than $208,850 in assets that don't pass automatically — but smaller estates, and assets held in trust or joint tenancy, can often skip it.

• Real Property

  Real property law covers buying and selling homes, how you hold title, landlord–tenant rights, and disputes over California real estate. This hub explains the essentials in plain English — including how the way you hold title affects probate, what sellers must disclose, and the current rules that protect tenants.

• Workers' Compensation

  California workers' compensation is a no-fault system that pays covered employees medical care and wage-loss benefits for work injuries — and in exchange it is generally the only claim you can bring against your employer. This hub explains who must carry coverage, what it pays, and the deadlines, then links four guides.

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