California Divorce Costs | Attorney vs. Legal Document Assistant | Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

This article is about the California divorce process and the costs associated with getting divorced.  We compare the costs of divorce of using a divorce attorney and using the services of our divorce legal document preparation service in California.

Please feel free to watch the video below.  We also have included the transcribed version of the video.

Hi, this is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com. Today we are doing another live broadcast and are also having this transcribed at the same time so we can embed this into our blog and uploaded this to an audio file. This is if our  computer can keep up with that.

So today we’re talking about the divorce costs and specifically going to talk about the difference between the cost of hiring an attorney to do your California divorce or hiring someone like my firm, which we are legal document assistants.

First off, let me tell you what a legal document assistant is. We are a licensed and bonded  legal document preparation firm and we just happen to specialize in the divorce process in California.  We are able to work without an attorney in our office which allows us to provide a more affordable service.

So let’s get into the divorce cost attorney versus legal document assistant. So obviously attorneys are doing  a much different job than we do. Mostly the divorce process is completing paperwork. There are occasions where you may need attorney and that’s if you need legal advice or if you need to be represented in court. Those are the two things that we are unable to do. Our license does not allow us to do that. And that’s because we are not attorneys. So if you feel that you will need legal advice or you’ll need to go to court to be represented that there you probably will need an attorney.

So lets back up just a bit and talk about the beginning of the divorce process in California. The California divorce process is mostly made up of paperwork.  You have you’re initial documents that need to be completed followed by doing your financial disclosures which these do no require an attorney. In fact, the divorce process in California can be completed entirely by a legal document preparation firm such as ours without any attorney supervision or without you ever needing to speak with an attorney.

Now we do have clients who start with us and they know they may need attorney down the road, but they want to get as much of the paperwork done as possible before going out and hiring attorney. So lets talk about the cost little bit. The average cost to have your divorce completed by an attorney and this is some research I’ve done online. You can find it as well if you were to look for it is about $20,000.  And that’s $20,000 per person, not the total of both parties.

We have clients who call us who have spoke with attorneys and they are to shocked by the amount of money that they are going to charge them for the divorce after they’ve talk to an attorney. They generally will call our company to find out if there are some other form options for the divorce case. So when we talk to them go weeks find them the difference you want people to understand that there is a difference between what attorneys doing what we do, but the end of the day we can help clients get through the entire divorce process from start to finish without any attorney supervision and without you ever needing to speak to an attorney.

Now if there it we run into trouble, and you do need to legal advice, not a problem. We can always refer you to an attorney in your area and you can get some legal advice a consultation if you need be, and then we can get right back to work for you. We can always just do that for you and you don’t have to hire the attorney to do that for you.

My name is Tim Blankenship. We are licensed and bonded legal document preparation service specialize in divorce. When you use our services. We worked on a flat fee basis. We do not use a retainer fee. We will quote you a flat fee for your divorce and that will be the total cost start to finish. We do everything for you from filing initial paperwork to prepare all the forms.  We taken down everything to the court for you and this is a complete service from start to finish, meaning from initial forms to service to judgment all for a flat fee.

You can go to our website at divorce661.com and we have some pricing packages you can see, based upon at the amount of work that needs to be done if you have children if you have property that needs to be separated those all are determining factors on the total cost of your divorce.  And feel free to look at our pricing page for more information.

Going back to retainers and how those work many people tell us that they spoke to an attorney and he told them the cost would be say $3500 or $4000.  Now what that is is that’s just a retainer that’s not the total cost of your divorce. The total cost your divorce is going to be whatever it takes at that attorney’s hourly rate to get the case finished. So if they’re asking for 3500 $4000 or $5000. That number doesn’t really matter because they are going to bill at their hourly rates if it’s $300,  $400, $500 an hour. They will bill you at that hourly rate until that monies extinguished and if your divorce cases is not finished you’re on the hook for the difference.

So that’s how divorce cases can end up in the $20,000 range. Based on the high attorney hourly rates. So if you’re looking for more affordable service to get your divorce completed and if your case is mostly amicable in nature, even if it’s not amicable, even if you know your going to need a divorce attorney, but you want to save some upfront costs on the document preparation we can really help you save some money by using our service.

So feel free to give me a call, my name is Tim Blankenship and our website is www.divorce661.com. My direct number is 661-281-0266.

California Divorce Resources, Tips & Help | California Divorce Service

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Hi this is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com. This is a transcription of our divorce master radio broadcast.

In this broadcast. We discuss some California divorce tips, tricks and helpful advice. We also will be discussing where you can find free online legal reference materials.

Beginning of transcription.

Hello everybody this is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com. Today we’re talking about the California divorce process and specifically where you can find some free help and legal reference materials.

There are many ways you can access free information on the Internet for the California divorce process, but many times people find it hard to understand.

Listen to internet radio with Tim Blankenship on BlogTalkRadio

Basically what we have done is taken the information from the courts websites and explained it in understandable terms. We have done this by placing helpful tutorials on our YouTube channel, as well as on audio on both our podcasts and blog talk radio show.

Speaking about our blog talk radio show, these make sure to join us Wednesday evenings at 6 PM Pacific on divorce master radio which if you’re listening to on this blog, you’re most likely listening to a archived version of the show.

So let’s start talking about some of the helpful resources on our website. If you go to our blog at divorce661.com you’ll notice that we have a legal resources tab. If you click on this tab, you’ll see that we have over 20+ links to various court websites that will help you do everything from researching case law to finding free family law forms for your divorce in California.

For instance, some of the links you can find are the California Rules of Court, California family law codes, failing to determine how much the divorce filing fees are in your county, California case law, free online legal research using find law, and how to look up your divorce case summary.

We also have links that link directly to the California Superior Court websites that will take you directly to information such as learning about the basics of divorce, the steps for filing for divorce, how to respond to a divorce filing, how to complete your divorce case, and other frequently asked questions.

The reason we provide all this free information and resources is we know that there are people out there that don’t have the financial resources to hire a professional legal document preparation service such as ours. For those people who want to make it easy to access information and explained the legal process and forms in understandable terms.

For those people looking for a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm that specializes in California divorce such as us this information serves as a useful tool to help these potential clients of ours find our service online. So you can see that by providing this free information on California divorce, we both attract new clients and help those looking for free information about the California divorce process.

Make sure to go to our blog at divorce661.com and get direct access to free information and helpful tips on the California divorce process.

My name is Tim Blankenship I’m a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm specializing in California divorce. We can help you with your California divorce anywhere in the state of California. Please take the time to read our website. Watch our YouTube videos and listen to our podcasts and when you’re ready please feel free to give us a call, would be happy to help you complete your California divorce.

End transcription.

 

Completing The California Divorce Summons & Petition [Slideshare & Podcast]

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

This article includes information on how to complete the California Summons and Petition.  It includes a Slideshare and podcast.  The text of this article are is the transcription of the audio.

Hi this is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com today we are talking about the upload we did to slide share. We wanted to go over the slide share and upload this audio to our slide share website what we have uploaded today which is the initial documents you’ll need to start your California divorce.

What we have here is the petition the summons the family law case cover sheet and a form called the declaration under uniform Child custody jurisdiction and enforcement act. These are the initial four forms you need to get your case filed in California and we uploaded these documents to slide share because these are documents that have some helpful information on them.

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What you’ll see is if you open up the slide share and you’ll find on our slide share.net site or on our website divorce 661.com on the petition and on all the forms there’s some helpful information on what to write down.  The biggest question people have when completing these documents is how to fill them out and have questions on what box do I check etc.  So we are going to briefly go over these forms you can use the slide share as an example when completing your document. We are going to talk about these a little bit.  First we have the petition and those on the petition that it tells you exactly what to do with the top with your name and address city state and ZIP Code where put the core information. Who’s the respondent who’s the petitioner and what box to mark for dissolution of marriage.

As you see them go down the form as far as statistical facts, declaration regarding children what to write if you have separate property, what to write if you have community property of petitioner’s requests.  At number six that lets you know what to fill out as far as irreconcilable differences. As far as number seven in petitioner’s requests because either giving information on who when and how to choose legal custody and physical custody they can use this form as a as a template if you will and will help you answer some of the questions you have as to filling out the petition.

The next form you’ll see in the slide share is the summons. The summons is fairly easy to complete this not a whole lot of information that needs to go on here. Basically just rename the attorney’s name and if you’re representing yourself which if your listing to this you probably are, you’re going to be your own attorneys and your information will go there.

Please note on the back of the summons there is some important information under standard family law restraining orders just make sure to take a look and read that, it is important to know.

The next form is the family law case cover sheet.  The cover sheet is only used to determine jurisdiction for the courts.  They want to  know where you live so they can make sure you’re in the right court. That form is fairly straightforward to fill out. It’s easy, not a lot to it,  just make you sure you sign it on page 2.

If you have children there’s one more form, it’s called the declaration under uniform child custody jurisdiction and enforcement act.  This form you’ll need if you have children and again is  fairly straight forward. They just want to know where your children have lived for the last five years because they will be making orders over your children they want to make sure they have the ability to do that.

So I hope you found this article and our our slide share helpful. We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm specializing in divorce, so if you want help and professional assistance in preparing your divorce I would be glad to help you out. We do provide these free tutorials and slide shares for those people who have more time than money, but if you are looking for professional divorce assistance anywhere in California please feel free to give us a call.  We would be happy to help you out because that’s what we do as a business.

My name is Tim Blankenship with divorce661.com You can reach me direct at 661-281-0266

California Divorce | We Can Review Your Divorce Judgment

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We just completed a radio broadcast today on blog talk radio and we wanted to get the word out about  how and why you need to get your divorce judgment reviewed in California before you submit to the court for review.

On the radio show we were discussing some of the issues people are having when trying to complete their California divorce on their own. When people are completing their own divorce they have a falsee sense of security because when they are turning in their form such as their summons and their petition and all the other documents nobody ever says to them that they’re doing anything wrong.

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The problem with this is that when you go to file your judgment, that will be the first time anyone actually looks at the paperwork you filed. It’s not the clerk’s job to look at your paperwork when you’re turning it in. So what the clerk does is take your forms that you may have completed wrong stamps them and puts them in the courts file.

This leaves you thinking you’ve done everything right and you don’t find out you made a mistake until you’ve turned in your final divorce judgment.

So you go through the whole divorce process, fill out all the forms you think you did everything right. You turn in your judgment and several months go by and you think to yourself that you must’ve done it right. Then out of the blue, six months later, you get paperwork back from the court. “You think, “great this is going to be my completed divorce” and what you find is a three-page notice of rejection of your divorce case.

Now what you have to do is go back figure out what you did wrong. You need to go through the checklist of issues trying fix what you did. Many times you’ll find it was a procedural issue and you have to go back and not only re-file paperwork but you’re going to end up having to re-serve certain paperwork as well.

What we recommend is that prior to submitting your final judgment in cases where you have prepared your entire divorce case, that you use our service where we will review your entire divorce judgment before it goes and gets submitted to the court.

By doing this you will ensure that your paperwork is done correctly. What we do with the divorce judgment review process is we will look at everything you have done up to the point of completing your judgment. We will review all the past paperwork and if any corrections need to be done we will take care of it.  If anything needs to be re-served we will take care of it and we will review and prepare your judgment and submit it to the court for review.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm that specializes in divorce in California.

For more information about why to have your divorce judgment reviewed please listen to the podcast in this article.

Free California Divorce Consultations Another Way To Connect With Clients

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We just got done completing a new podcast on Blog Talk Radio where we were talked about our free divorce consultations that we offer in California.

We were discussing that we are a content-based company. This means that we are constantly giving out free information on our websites logs YouTube videos and on our podcasts.

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Providing free divorce consultations in California is just one more way we are able to provide additional free information to people who are looking for answers to the questions they have about California divorce.

We feel that it’s important to provide information to our clients. This is how people are able to find our divorce service.

When people ask a question about divorce we want them to find our blogs when they’re looking for answers. We hope they are able to get the answers they are looking for, but were also looking to get in front of our clients so if they do need divorce assistance in California that they will call us when they need help.

Make sure to tune into our Blog Talk Radio show called Divorce Master Radio we are hosting a live radio event every Wednesday at 6 PM. You can call and ask questions will be talking about a new topic every week.

To learn more about our free divorce consultations in California make sure to listen to the blog talk radio show that we’ve embedded into this article.

Please give us a call if you have any questions about California divorce. We would be happy to answer your questions and see if our service would be something that you could use to help with your divorce. You can reach us at 661-281-0266.

Understanding The California Divorce Process [Live Broadcast 7-17-13]

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Please join us for our live radio broadcast on July 17, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. “Understanding The California Divorce Process”.  This will be a live broadcast and we will be taking callers and answering questions.

Click this link on July 17, 2013 at 6:00 to listen on your computer.

We will be hosting these live radio broadcasts every Wednesday at 6:00 p.m., so make sure to tune in weekly.  You can find our Radio Show Page And Upcoming Broadcasts here.  You can also attend the live show from our show page.

In this broadcast we will be providing an overview of the California divorce process and answering frequently asked questions about divorce.

We get calls day in and day out and many times we are answering the same questions over and over.  So this will be a very informative broadcast.

Here is what we will be talking about.

  • An overview of the divorce process
  • The divorce forms
  • How long divorce takes
  • Information needed to file for divorce
  • Common problems when preparing your own divorce
  • Should you get help with your divorce or try to do it yourself

When the broadcast is over, we will be posting the recording to this page.  You can also find all our previous shows on our page that says “On The Air” at the top of site.

On the day of the live event, we will be doing a couple of different things.

First, we will be hosting the live radio show.  Callers can call in or chat and ask their questions.  In addition to the radio show, we will also be recording the event live on our Google Plus page.

If you are a Google Plus user and would like to watch the live video, you can find us on Hangouts On Air at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesdays.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm specializing in divorce in California.  We are headquartered in northern Los Angeles County and can assist you anywhere in California.

If you have any questions you can reach us at 661-281-0266.  We look forward to hearing from you at our live broadcast.

Completing California Divorce Petition [Podcast] Tutorial

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We strive to get our self help divorce information out to as many people as we can by as many means as we can.

Our latest efforts are in our weekly live radio show and daily Podcasts.

This podcast will detail how to complete the California Divorce Petition form FL-100.  We will walk you step by step through.  And don’t forget, we are a full service divorce document preparation firm.  If you are looking for assistance, we would be happy to discuss completing your California divorce for you.

Here is the podcast we recorded on our radio show.

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This divorce podcast will walk you through the entire divorce form. We cover:

  • Which boxes to check
  • Determining the date of separation
  • What to list as separate property
  • What to list as community property
  • Help on legal custody
  • help on physical custody
  • What termination of spousal support means
  • what termination of jurisdiction means
  • and much more…

The California divorce Petition form is just one of the documents you will need to complete in order to file your divorce case in California.

You can also join us live on our weekly radio show broadcast on Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m.

Here we will be discussing many different topics all related to California divorce.  In fact, we will be taking live callers who are looking for assistance in completing their California divorce.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm that specializes in California divorce. We are not attorney and are not a law firm so we will not be answering any questions related to the law or legal type questions.

We focus on providing divorce self help services.  This means cases where you are representing yourself during your divorce.

Please join us on Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m. and make sure to tell your friends that may need our service.

 

California Divorce Document Preparation Firm Now On The Radio

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We are excited to announce that we are now broadcasting live on BlogTalkRadio every Wednesday evening at 6 p.m.  The news was recently announced on our show this morning.  Here is the show where we made the announcement in case you wanted to learn more.

Listen to internet radio with Tim Blankenship on BlogTalkRadio

Our goal is to get the word out about our California Divorce Self Help Radio show so we can help folks throughout California who are representing themselves during their divorce get the the help they need.

If you are going through divorce in California or thinking of doing so, then you are aware how little information is out there.  And what information is out there about divorce is so hard to understand.  Everything seems to be written in some type of code.

With our Radio show we are hoping to cast a wider net than we have with our blogs.  We are using the paid service which gives us impressions which should help our California Divorce Self Help radio show found by the folks looking for help.

We will be taking callers on the show and answering questions related to the divorce process, divorce procedure and divorce forms.  We want folks to call us and ask us their specific questions so our listeners can learn from those going through the divorce process as well.

The questions we get asked about divorce everyday are pretty much the same.  There is always a little twist in that each person has a little different issue that can change the advice we would give however.

While we hope that people take advantage of the free information we will be providing, we also hope that folks decide to use our divorce legal service as well.  Either way, we feel we are providing a valuable service and at the same time getting our name in front of potential clients.

Make sure to tune into our show at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays to listen to us live!

I Received A Notice Of Status Conference For My California Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you are in the divorce process in California and representing yourself, you may get a letter that is titled, “Notice Of Status Conference – Family Centered Case Resolution”

This is a hearing that is set by the court and are used for specific purposes.  They are using this procedure in many cases to advise the parties that certain actions must be taken prior to a hearing.

Here is a link with a sample of the Notice of Status Conference.

notice of status conference sample

The first such Notice Of Status Conference you may receive will be one which states that your divorce case is not complete.  You will receive this notice if you have not served your spouse the summons and petition within about 60 days from filing.

If you receive this notice, it will give you specific instruction on what you need to do prior to the hearing date.  In the example above, you would need to serve the summons and petition and complete your Declaration of Disclosure and file the Declaration Regarding Service of Declaration of Disclosure.  Both of these need to be filed with the court.

If you file the proof of service and Declaration of Disclosure, you will not need to go to the court date for the Status Conference.  The clerk will review your file on the date of your status conference and see that the appropriate documents were filed and take the hearing off calendar.

If you won’t be able to have the other party served by the time of the hearing you will most likely want to attend the hearing and advise the court why you have not done so and perhaps what problems you are running into.

The divorce courts have been taking a more proactive approach this year and setting status conferences to keep the cases moving through the court system.

Make sure to read any Notice of Status Conference you receive and make sure you comply with the courts requests.

If you have any questions about what you need to do about a notice you received in the court, please feel free to contact our office.

Do You Need Child Support Or Spousal Support Orders?

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We are a full service divorce company that prepares, files and serves your divorce documents.  This includes assisting you with child support and spousal support orders. We can prepare your motion or assist you in filing a Response if you have been served. We can help you during your divorce or even after your divorce (Post Judgment).

How Spousal / Child Support works when you are getting divorced

If you are  going through a divorce, you can file a motion with the court and ask for spousal support or child support or both. At any time, while going through the divorce process, you can file a motion with the court.  These motions are called Request For Orders.  When you file a motion for child support or spousal support, a court date will be set.  The orders that are made at the hearing will give you temporary orders until time of the final judgment in the divorce case.

How Spousal Support / Child Support works after you have divorced

Any thing done after your divorce has been finalized in called “Post Judgment” which simply means “after the judgment”. When you file a motion to modify spousal support or child support there normally has to be some “change in circumstances” for the court to order a modification of support.  Normally if one of the parties loses a job or is now making more money is justification to request a modification of support. It is best to call our office so we can discuss if a modification is appropriate.

If you were served with a Request for Order for support

If you were served a motion or request for order, you can file a Response.  A Response is your opportunity to tell the judge your side of the story. Their are specific rules on filing a Response related to filing, service and due dates.  Don’t wait too long before calling us as it does take a few days to prepare your declaration and file them with the court.