Sunnyvale Divorce Lawyer

Certified Divorce Attorney in Sunnyvale, CA

A Sunnyvale Divorce Lawyer Who Understands What You Built

Divorce in Sunnyvale rarely comes down to who is right: it comes down to protecting what you and your spouse built together. Dividing assets like stock options, RSUs, cryptocurrency, or a home with significant equity gets complicated fast, and simple settlement offers often fall short.

Rebekah A. Frye brings deep expertise in complex financial tracing and tax strategies to ensure every asset is accurately valued and divided. Reach out to discuss your estate and ensure you walk away with the fair share you earned.

What a Sunnyvale Divorce Case Covers, From Filing to Settlement

Our Sunnyvale divorce attorneys handle every part of the case, not just the parts that are easy to summarize in a first consultation. Here is what that work actually includes, from the first filing to the final judgment.

• Contested and uncontested divorce: filing the petition, negotiating terms, and taking a case to trial when settlement is not possible.
• Property and asset division: real estate, retirement accounts, business interests, and equity compensation earned during the marriage.
• Stock options, RSUs, and cryptocurrency: valuing and dividing compensation that does not show up on a pay stub and can be easy to hide or undervalue if no one asks the right questions.
• Spousal support: calculating a fair number and correcting assumptions built on incomplete or outdated income information.
• Child custody and parenting plans built into the divorce itself, not addressed as a separate afterthought once the property questions are settled.
• Mediation and collaborative divorce for spouses who want to settle privately instead of in a courtroom, when both sides are willing to work toward an agreement.

What’s at Stake When You Divorce in Sunnyvale and Santa Clara County

California is a community property state. Under California Family Code section 2550, the court must divide community property equally between spouses when the case goes to trial. But you and your spouse can agree to split things differently, and a judge can also award an unequal share if one spouse hid assets or breached a duty to the other. That baseline rule still decides who keeps the house, who keeps the retirement account, and how a stock grant or RSU package earned during the marriage gets split, unless you and your spouse agree to something else.

If you and your spouse cannot agree, your case is heard at the Family Justice Center Courthouse in San Jose, the courthouse that handles every Santa Clara County divorce, custody, and support case, including cases filed by Sunnyvale residents who commute from just up the road. What happens if you walk into that courtroom without someone who has valued complex compensation before? You could walk out with far less than half of what you built together, simply because no one traced it correctly the first time around.

Stock Options, RSUs, and Crypto: Dividing Silicon Valley Compensation in a Sunnyvale Divorce

Sunnyvale divorces often hinge on compensation that does not look like a paycheck. Unvested RSUs, incentive stock options, and cryptocurrency holdings all raise the same question: how much of this belongs to the marriage, and how much belongs to whoever earned it after the split date? When these assets are part of your divorce, a dedicated Sunnyvale Family Law Attorney can help you look closely at the grant date, vesting schedule, and how each award was structured—details that can easily get missed in a rushed settlement or a do-it-yourself divorce filing that treats every asset the same way.

Rebekah Frye is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, an invitation-only credential given to a small number of attorneys with a demonstrated record in complex matrimonial law. She draws on that background, along with her LL.M. in Taxation, to bring in forensic accountants when a case calls for it, and to make sure equity compensation gets valued correctly instead of estimated or ignored altogether.

If your marriage includes stock options, RSUs, or crypto, get them valued before you sign anything.

FAQs About Sunnyvale, CA Divorce Laws

How long do I need to live in Sunnyvale before I can file for divorce?

Under California Family Code section 2320, you or your spouse must have lived in California for six months and in Santa Clara County for three months before filing. If you have not met that yet, you may still be able to file for a legal separation first and convert it to a divorce once you qualify, so you do not have to wait on the sidelines while the clock runs.

How is our property divided in a Sunnyvale divorce?

In most cases, California divides community property, everything earned or acquired during the marriage, equally between spouses, unless you and your spouse agree to something different. Separate property you owned before the marriage, or received individually as a gift or inheritance, usually stays yours, though it can get mixed with community funds over the years in ways that need to be carefully untangled before a judge will sign off.

What happens to my stock options and RSUs specifically?

It depends on when they were granted and when they vest. Awards tied partly to work done during the marriage are often treated as partly community property, and getting that split right takes someone who can read a vesting schedule and a grant agreement, not just a pay stub or a rough guess.

Do we have to go to court, or can we settle privately?

Most Sunnyvale divorces settle through negotiation or mediation rather than trial. We prepare every case as if it could go to court, which usually gives us more room to negotiate a stronger settlement long before we ever get near a courtroom.

Will divorcing change how much time I get with my kids?

Custody and divorce are decided together, not separately, and a judge looks at what serves your children rather than defaulting to an automatic even split.

If you have a question we have not answered here, tell us your situation and we will walk you through exactly how it applies to your case.

Begin Your Sunnyvale Divorce with a Clear Plan

You do not have to sort through equity compensation, property records, and custody questions on your own while also holding down a job and a household. The sooner we understand what you and your spouse built together, the sooner we can help you protect your share of it. Contact The Law Offices of Rebekah A. Frye, PC to schedule a confidential consultation about your Sunnyvale divorce.