The issue arose when Ronda Barron appeared in family law court for a hearing to determine her husband’s child support arrearages.  The family law Commissioner ordered Ms. Barron to seek full-time work.  When she explained that her CalWORKs welfare-to-work plan required her to attend community college to address learning disabilities, the Commissioner replied that he did not care; “if that means you quit school to go get a job, so be it.”

Ms. Barron, represented by Bay Area Legal Aid in San Jose and the Western Center on Law and Poverty in Los Angeles, sought relief in the Court of Appeal.  The appellate court agreed with Ms. Barron, holding that the  seek full-time work order interfered with the elaborate legislative welfare-to-work scheme.  The appellate court stated that the order “places the parent in the untenable position of having to choose between the possibility of sanctions imposed for failing to comply with the welfare-to-work plan and sanctions for ignoring the court order.” The Court of Appeal also held that the trial court violated Ms. Barron’s due process rights by imposing the seek full-time work order on her without advance notice.

The appellate court ordered the opinion published on request by the Western Center on behalf of Ms. Barron, the Legal Aid Association of California, and Horvitz & Levy on behalf of the Harriett Buhai Family Law Center and eight California family law professors. The Western Center pointed out that the decision could have widespread effect, as there are more than 400,000 pending child support cases in which one of the parents is receiving CalWORKs.