What Kids Say Counts: Child Testimony at California Custody Hearings

When a California divorce involves legal determinations regarding children, the resulting complexities can pose challenges even if the couple is generally in agreement. Statutory provisions regarding child support and custody require that children’s best interests must also be taken into account.

California recently provided even stronger attention to children’s expressed interests in child custody determinations. Following recommendations from a statewide family law task force, California legislators approved more effective child custody procedures to improve the experience for both parents and children.

The changes to the way child custody determinations are made include several new provisions for participation by children in legal proceedings when their parents divorce:
- Children who are at least 14 years old should be allowed to express their preferences regarding custody or visitation orders unless the judge finds that doing so would not serve the child’s best interests
- A family court judge can allow younger children to testify about grants or modifications of child custody or visitation if they are “of sufficient age and capacity to reason so as to form an intelligent preference”
- Parents, family law attorneys, and evaluators now have formal procedures for informing family court judges that a child would like to appear at a hearing

The law also required the California Judicial Council to establish new procedures for examination of children who appear as witnesses, and these new rules took effect at the beginning of 2012. The rules are intended to protect children from embarrassment or the potential for harassment, and include the power to limit parental access to hearings when children testify if necessary.

A child’s expressed wishes about which parent he or she would prefer to live with is a highly relevant factor in child custody determinations, as well as considerations about particular holidays or access to school programs and activities. However, the full range of factors must still be taken into account, including a mother or father’s allegations of parental unfitness, domestic violence or other issues involving responsible parenting.

A California child custody lawyer can help a parent assess his or her prospects for securing physical or legal custody of a child or children. Just as important, a family law attorney can assist parents with the legal process for modification of existing custody terms. This is true whether the client is concerned about the effects of job relocation or wants to oppose the other parent’s petition for a change to visitation.

Article provided by Law Offices of David P. Schwarz
Visit us at www.davidschwarzlaw.com/

Safe Lovemaking: Having the Conversation with a New Partner

Few men get hot and bothered discussing matters of contraception and infection prevention, but men should try to keep in mind the fact that responsibility and a high level of comfort can be very sensual traits. No partner wants to deal with a man who grumbles, sighs and laments the use of barrier protection; one might as well tell his partner right off the bat that he’s not planning to enjoy himself. And nobody wants to have an awkward conversation about lovemaking history or protection preferences, but those conversations are important for female organ and manhood health, and they don’t need to be awkward. A man who brings knowledge and ease to such topics can start things off on the right foot.

The following are important things to discuss before engaging in sensual activity with a new partner:

Back-Up Method

If a man’s partner is female, he may want to know if she uses another form of birth control, such as the tablet or the Nuva ring. Barriers can break or slip off; though it’s rare when they are put on correctly – something every man should be very skilled at – it’s still possible, and the couple may be more comfortable if the female partner has a back-up contraceptive method.

Infection History

Many people have had one or more partner-transmitted infections in the past. Some people still have active infections, whereas others have been treated and cured. Be honest.

Testing History

Sensually active individuals should receive regular infection testing, at least once a year. This is true even if no symptoms are present, as some people don’t exhibit symptoms of infections but can still pass them on. It’s important to understand that not all infections can be tested for, so even if no symptoms are present and tests have come back negative, there’s always a chance of passing something along. That’s why barriers are never a bad idea – they don’t prevent the spread of all infections 100%, but they go a long way to inhibit transmission.

Previous Partners

Many people like to discuss how many previous partners each has had. Some prefer not-so-specific information, focusing on a general feel for how many, and a number for those with whom one has had unprotected activity in particular. Good questions to ask are: Have previous partners had partner-transmitted infections before, during or after their time together? How many partners since the last round of infection testing?

What If?

Whenever two people are sensually active and wish to avoid getting pregnant, it’s a good idea to ensure that both are on the same page concerning what to do in the event of accidental pregnancy. One partner might be strictly opposed to the pregnancy being completed, while the other might want to keep the child or go the adoption route. A disagreement here could turn into a major life problem for both partners. This is something best discussed before it has a chance to occur.

Safe lovemaking is one of the primary elements of male organ care. Others include practicing proper hygiene and making sure to give one’s member plenty of exercise. In order to ensure everything is in good working order, guys should perform self-checks regularly. Anything out of the ordinary? How is the skin condition? If a man notices dry, chafed skin, he should attend to that. Cracks in the skin can provide a welcoming home for viruses, bacteria and fungi. Also, constant friction can cause the skin to toughen, reducing sensation over time. Men would be wise to use a male organ health crème (health professionals recommend Man1 Man Oil) to moisturize the skin daily, protecting it from the various frictions it encounters from barriers, clothing, other bodies and a man’s own hand. Skin health, along with safe lovemaking, is a vital component of overall manhood health.

Visit http://www.menshealthfirst.com for additional information on most common male organ health issues, tips on improving organ sensitivity and what to do to maintain a healthy manhood. John Dugan is a professional writer who specializes in men’s health issues and is an ongoing contributing writer to numerous websites.

7 Outstanding Ways of Customer Retention Using Salesforce Integration

You may also have new customers for your business, but to get the new customer and to retain the existing ones are two different aspects. Studies have proven that customer retention can provide 25% growth or profit to any business. If your competitor swipes your customer’s right from under your nose, then you need to focus on customer retention process and their tools. This article discusses customer retention using Salesforce through seven points:

Use Integration to Store Data Centrally
In the customer-focused marketing era, it has become essential to know the best way to connect with the customer to convert the relationship into a meaningful one by solving their problems in a faster manner and by fulfilling their requirements and expectations timely and properly. But to achieve this simple looking task is not easy, you may be using various applications, which might be restricting your efficiency and functioning in silos, and slowing down functional speed and quality, which may result in customer dissatisfaction.

The simple and straight solution to this problem is that you must integrate the system and data centrally by storing it in the cloud. For this Salesforce can provide you the best cloud-based integration platform, which can disable all IT related bottlenecks and streamline the data flow among various business processes. Here for streamlining the best example is that if various departments of the organization are using various tools to smoothen their operations, then with the help of a transparent data funnel they can get the 360-degree view of every customer. So now through the transparent system can help the organizational employees or sales team members to make the customer retention more effective.

Use Customer Data to Send Personalized Messages
Salesforce integration partner can provide you lots of valuable customer data. Now you can take advantage of this data to send the personalized emails, so that the customers may feel connected with your service. Personalized emails may make your customer feel special, like in following email, which is sent by Amazon to its customer by his name:

Here Amazon has sent the personalized email with the name of the customer, and on the basis of his search history, they have sent a few suggestions to the customer. It may be a great experience for the customer. Salesforce can be proven a gold mine of customer data, which may include their online activities, downloads and search history including their location.

Customer Data in Salesforce

Using the customer information the personalized messages can be easily sent customers. Moreover, any external email marketing tool like MailChimp or any other freely available tool can also be used to send such personalized messages to the customers. There are ready to use apps, which can be used to synchronize MailChimp like apps with Salesforce.

Social Media and Salesforce Integration
In this era of social media, when everyone is on social media, it has become important to respond to customer’s query through the same channel from where they have contacted you. If your customer has asked you question through Twitter or Facebook then you should use the same channel to get back to them. In Salesforce there are ready to use social media integration tools through which you can keep track of your customer interaction and access all of your social media messages at one place.

The feeds are refreshed in every 5 minutes and the user or sales reps can reply right here from the app to the user’s query, by using the Reply button, even right from within the app you can see the social media profile of your customer.

Re-engage the Inactive Customers
There can be a number of inactive subscribers in your customer list, for lead generation, it is advised to prune

the inactive customers. Moreover, the probability of existing customers is more likely to follow-up the purchase rather than the new one. There are email marketing tools, which can segment the inactive customers from the entire list of your subscribers. You can use that segment to send the personalized messages or offers to make them active or to re-engage them. There are also customer retention email templates, which you can use to send as email. Through Salesforce integration facility, you can easily integrate Mailchimp like external email tools can be integrated with Salesforce to create the segments of inactive users.

Customer Interaction Track
If you send emails and offers to your customers, then you would like to know his actions as well and for this, there is a feature in Salesforce Track of customer interaction. You can check that whether your customer has downloaded any e-book or made any purchase since the time when you interacted with him? You can also get the track notification message either weekly or monthly. For this, you can also check which customer have not been in touch from last 6 months and send them offers and discounts as per his interest or previous interaction. For this, you can create a report in the Salesforce.

Improved Customer Service through Salesforce Integration
In an era of customer-oriented marketing, it has become essential to serve the customers in a better way to retain the loyal customers. After making sales to the customer or sending them discounts or offers, the organization must be ready to deal with the customer’s complaint effectively and respond them in a timely manner. Salesforce implementation service cloud provides an integrated customer service platform. Customer interaction is not limited to just sending them discounts and offers, even the complaints made by them must also be handled in a proper manner. They must be responded in a timely manner. Through Salesforce Service Cloud integration the sales team can access all customer related information and you can keep track of any customer complaint or issue. Following Salesforce screenshot gives an overview of the customer information, displayed on Salesforce Service cloud, which includes email, phone or contact number, social media connections. The customer service team can contact the customers immediately, using the contact information on them.

IPAAS for Business Intelligence
In Salesforce for the platform to platform integration iPaaS can be used. Using iPaaS diverse software applications and components can be made compatible with Salesforce. The reporting ability is also enhanced using iPaaS and the detailed and customized reports can be easily generated, which can get the feed from other apps. iPaaS allows the data to come from the cloud or any on-premise application so that it can be turned into apps, compatible with mobile devices and social apps.

Last but not the Least

Customer retention is the most important and essential step to generate the revenue. At the same time, presence of a number of competitive sites may divert the customer towards them. Power of customer data can be used to provide personalized service to the customers. You can make a long-lasting relationship with your customer using such useful information.