Family law is an area of the law that deals with family-related issues and domestic relations including the nature of marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships; issues arising during marriage, including spousal abuse, legitimacy, adoption, surrogacy, child abuse, and child abduction; the termination of the relationship and ancillary matters including divorce, annulment, property settlements, alimony, and parental responsibility orders (in the United States, child custody and visitation, child support and alimony awards).
Lakewood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 79,345 at the 2000 census. It is bordered by Long Beach on the west and south, Bellflower on the north, Cerritos on the northeast, Cypress on the east, and Hawaiian Gardens on the southeast. Major thoroughfares include Lakewood, Bellflower, and Del Amo Boulevards and Carson and South Streets. The San Gabriel River Freeway runs through the city's eastern regions. Sometimes called "an instant city" because of its origins—going from lima bean fields in 1950 to a well-developed city by 1960—Lakewood is, along with Levittown, New York, the archetypal post-World War II American suburb. The vast majority of its housing stock is small, mass-produced single-story houses on tree-lined streets, sold initially to World War II and Korean War veterans who worked in the aerospace factories of Long Beach and the South Bay.