Custody & parenting plans
Practical, child-centered advocacy for custody, visitation, move-away, and parenting-time disputes.
Discuss your situation ↗San Diego family law
When family changes, your future deserves a clear direction.
Thoughtful counsel. Resolute advocacy. A grounded path forward through custody, support, separation, and protective-order matters.
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The approach
Your case is personal.
The strategy should be, too.
Family disputes are rarely just legal problems. They affect your time, finances, relationships, and sense of stability. The right representation should make the path clearer—not add more noise.
This practice is presented around a simple promise: listen carefully, explain plainly, and advocate with purpose.
Tell us what is happening
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Ways we can help
Steady counsel for life’s most personal legal matters.
Focused family-law guidance designed around the facts, the people, and the future at stake.
Support & financial stability
Clear guidance on child support, spousal support, modification, and enforcement concerns.
Discuss your situation ↗Protective orders
Timely representation in domestic-violence restraining-order requests and defense.
Discuss your situation ↗Divorce & separation
Strategic support through dissolution, property questions, negotiation, and contested proceedings.
Discuss your situation ↗
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What to expect
Calm. Candid. Prepared.
A clear process when everything else feels uncertain.
You should always know what comes next, what the options mean, and where your case stands.
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01
Listen
Begin with the full picture—your priorities, concerns, and immediate needs.
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Map the path
Translate the law into practical options, risks, timing, and a focused plan.
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Advocate
Prepare carefully, negotiate from strength, and appear in court when needed.
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About Mackenzie
Family-law advocate
Direct when it matters. Human throughout.
Mackenzie J. Colt was admitted to the State Bar of California on May 29, 2014, and has built her practice around family law ever since—child custody and support, divorce and separation, and restraining-order matters. She earned her J.D. from Thomas Jefferson School of Law and holds a B.A. from the University at Buffalo, SUNY. She practices in San Diego County at Colt & Hipper, APC.
2014Admitted in California
12Years in family law
SDSan Diego County
- Education
- J.D., Thomas Jefferson School of Law (2012) · B.A., University at Buffalo, SUNY (2008)
- Bar admission
- State Bar of California, May 29, 2014 · Licensee #296532 · Active status
- Professional memberships
- Consumer Attorneys of San Diego · Foothills Bar Association · Criminal Defense Bar Association of San Diego
- Focus areas
- Child custody · Child & spousal support · Divorce and separation · Domestic-violence restraining orders
Credentials above are drawn from the State Bar of California licensee record (#296532) and public attorney-directory profiles. No case outcomes are described: California family-law proceedings are confidential, and past results would not predict future outcomes in any event.
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Common questions
A little clarity before we talk.
General information only. The details of your case will determine the right next step.
What should I bring to a first consultation?
A short timeline, current court orders, upcoming deadlines, and the documents most relevant to your immediate concern are a strong start. Avoid sending confidential material until representation and a secure delivery method are confirmed.
Does every family-law matter go to trial?
No. Many matters are resolved through informed negotiation, mediation, or agreement. Careful trial preparation can still strengthen your position when settlement is possible.
Can an existing custody or support order change?
In some circumstances, yes. Modification typically depends on the kind of order and the facts that have changed. A consultation can help identify the applicable standard.
Is contacting the office confidential?
Lawyers generally treat prospective-client information with care, but submitting a form does not by itself create an attorney-client relationship. Do not include urgent or highly sensitive information in an initial message.
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Legal updates
What changed in California family law.
Plain-language notes on new statutes and appellate decisions, each linked to the primary source so you can read the law yourself.
The Supreme Court just made it possible to appeal when you cannot afford a court reporter
If you lose a hearing in family court and want to appeal, you generally need a word-for-word record of what was said. For years that meant hiring a certified shorthand reporter — and in courts without enough official reporters on staff, litigants who could not pay privately simply had no record at all. Without one, the appellate court presumes the trial judge got it right, and the appeal is over before it starts. The Family Violence Appellate Project reported turning away dozens of abuse survivors for exactly this reason, even where the survivor's account suggested a meritorious appeal.
On August 10, 2026, the California Supreme Court ended that practice. In Family Violence Appellate Project v. Superior Court, a unanimous court led by Chief Justice Guerrero held that the superior courts have a duty under the in forma pauperis doctrine to give indigent civil litigants a means of obtaining an official verbatim record — including by electronic recording when no official reporter is available. The Court issued a writ of mandate directing the respondent courts to provide that access "in all cases," on request.
This matters locally in a direct way: the San Diego County Superior Court was one of the four respondent courts, alongside Los Angeles, Santa Clara, and Contra Costa. The opinion notes that while some counties had issued general orders authorizing electronic recording, San Diego had not. The San Diego Family Law Bar Association participated as amicus curiae, and the Survivor Justice Center specifically emphasized how much a verbatim record matters in family law and restraining-order proceedings.
The practical takeaway for anyone in a contested custody, support, or restraining-order matter: if you cannot afford a private court reporter, you can now request that the court create an official record by other means, and the court must accommodate you. Ask before your hearing, not after. A hearing that goes unrecorded is a hearing you generally cannot appeal, no matter how strong your position was.
A restraining order petition cannot be thrown out because the courtroom ran out of time
Domestic violence restraining order hearings are often scheduled in crowded blocks, and courts are under real pressure to move the calendar. In one San Diego County case, a wife sought a restraining order against her husband, describing years of physical abuse, threats of deportation, financial control, and abuse directed at their child. The court issued a temporary restraining order protecting her and the child, and an evidentiary hearing followed.
At the hearing on August 30, 2024, after the wife had testified, the parties had not finished presenting their cases within the time the court had set aside. Rather than continue the matter, the family court dismissed the restraining order petition outright and dissolved the temporary order — resolving nothing on the merits and leaving the protected parties without protection.
The Fourth Appellate District, Division One — the appellate court that reviews San Diego County family cases — reversed in a published opinion, In re Marriage of G.E. & I.D. The court held that Code of Civil Procedure section 533, which governs modifying or dissolving an existing injunction, gives a court no authority to dismiss a restraining order petition that has never been decided. As the court put it, the family court "manifestly abused its discretion by abruptly dismissing the DVRO petition without resolving it on the merits."
The case was sent back with instructions to reinstate the temporary restraining order and actually hear the petition. Because the opinion is published, it binds trial courts across California. If your restraining order request was dismissed for scheduling or docket-management reasons rather than on the evidence, that decision may be reviewable — and appellate deadlines in these matters are short, so the time to ask is immediately.
Couples who agree can now file for divorce together — SB 1427's joint petition
Until this year, California gave amicable couples exactly one shortcut: summary dissolution. It was so narrow as to be nearly useless — the marriage had to be under five years, with no children, and very limited assets. Everyone else had to use the adversarial format, where one spouse is the petitioner, the other is the respondent, and the petitioner has to formally serve the other with papers. For couples who had already agreed on everything, that first step often felt like a declaration of war over nothing.
Senate Bill 1427, authored by Senator Allen and chaptered as Chapter 190 of the Statutes of 2024, created a genuine alternative that took effect January 1, 2026. It amends Family Code sections 2330, 2331, 2342, 2401, and 2402 and adds sections 2342.5 and 2342.51, establishing a joint petition for dissolution of marriage or legal separation available to couples who do not qualify for summary dissolution. Length of marriage, children, and property holdings are no longer disqualifying.
The most immediately useful feature is service. Under the new law, the joint petition "shall be deemed to be served on both parties upon the filing of the joint petition with the court." No process server, no awkward hand-off, no proof of service to chase down. Joint petitioners disclose information about any children, including each child's age and date of birth, and list the issues they are resolving by agreement.
Importantly, this is not a trap door. Either party may amend their position before judgment without needing the court's permission; filing an amendment converts the matter to a standard petition, and the parties retain the ability to conduct discovery and file motions. The joint petition is best understood as a smoother on-ramp for couples who are genuinely aligned — not a waiver of anyone's rights if that alignment breaks down.
Spousal support just changed on your taxes — and it changes what a fair number looks like
Since the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act took effect in 2019, California and the IRS have disagreed about alimony. Federally, spousal support stopped being deductible for the paying spouse and stopped being taxable income for the recipient. California kept the old rules for state income tax, so for seven years support payments were deductible on a California return but not a federal one — a mismatch that required a Schedule CA adjustment and that a great many taxpayers simply got wrong.
Senate Bill 711, authored by Senator McNerney and chaptered as Chapter 231 of the Statutes of 2025, brings California into conformity with federal law. For divorce or separation instruments executed after December 31, 2025, spousal support is neither deductible by the payor nor taxable to the recipient at either the state or federal level. One rule, both returns.
The reason this matters beyond tax-filing convenience is that it changes the math of the negotiation itself. Under the old California treatment, a dollar of support cost the higher-earning spouse less than a dollar after the state deduction, which gave both sides room to structure larger payments. That subsidy is gone. A support figure that looked reasonable under a 2024 settlement may not carry the same after-tax result if it is negotiated today.
If you already have a support order, it generally continues under the tax treatment in place when it was made. The critical detail is what happens on modification: a pre-2026 order can be pulled into the new rules if the modification includes language expressly stating that the new treatment applies. That is a decision to make deliberately with counsel and, where the numbers are significant, with a tax professional — not something to discover after filing.
These summaries are general information about published California law, not legal advice, and they do not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case turns on its own facts. Links go to the official court opinions and legislative records so you can read the primary source yourself.
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