Free Divorce Financial Review With Edward Jones | Santa Clarita Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When you get divorced, it is a good time to have a financial review done so you can see where you are at.  A lot changes after divorce and you will want to look at your investments, life insurance and other finances to see where you are at and possibly make adjustments post divorce.

I interviewed Janelle Percy with Edward Jones about this and she indicated that she would provide a free financial review for our clients who are going through divorce.

Anytime we can provide additional services to our clients we are happy to and glad that we have this connection with a financial advisor here in Santa Clarita.

Watch this short video to learn more.

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm serving California.  We take care of your entire divorce from start to finish and work directly with your local court.  Give us a call for a free consultation.

California Divorce & Claiming Your Spouse’s Social Security Benefits

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

California Divorce & Claiming Your Spouse’s Social Security Benefits

When going through a divorce in California, one of the things you will have to discuss is the issue of social security benefits.

please watch the video below for full explanation.

Did you know that if you are married more than 10 years that you have rights to your spouse’s social security?  Furthermore, claiming your spouses social security does not impact them at all.  The amount of social security that your spouse receives is not reduced if you request to collect off of their social security benefits.

Another thing we discuss in this interview is that if you remarry and are married for less than 10 years you can go back to the prior spouse and again claim their social security.

Use Divorce Court Judgment Forms Not Marital Settlement Agreement

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

The divorce process is difficult, no doubt about it.  From the form completion to ensuring you properly serve and file papers, many people who attempt to file their own California divorce will fail.

This is why we write so many articles about divorce and the process that will hopefully help folks getting through their divorce.  There is something in it for me, of course, and that is that i hope you will come across our divorce articles and videos and then reach out to us and hire us to prepare your divorce case for you.  I figure if i was helpful at some point, and then you need help or decide to hire someone, that you will come to me for help with your divorce.

This article (and video below) will discuss how to prepare your final divorce judgment, also known as Marital Settlement Agreement or MSA.

(watch video for full explanation)



The last part of a California divorce is to prepare the judgment.  This is where you incorporate all your agreements regarding the terms of your divorce.  In addition, there are numerous additional court forms that you will have to prepare along with the agreements.

This is the part that give people most of the trouble and here is what we recommend.

Instead of trying to use a Marital Settlement Agreement type of form where there is drawn out narrative that you probably found online and which wont be accepted by the court, instead use the court judgment forms.

If you look at the FL-180 which is the judgment face sheet, you will notice on page 2 that there are boxes you can check that relate to the type of order.  For instance, lets say child support and child custody as they are at the top. You can check those boxes then use the corresponding form for those orders.  In this case it would be the FL-342 and FL-343.

By using the court judgment forms instead of a MSA you will greatly increase your chances of having your California divorce judgment accepted and approved by the court.

If you need professional assistance with your divorce case please give us call.  We provide full service California divorce services at affordable rates.

 

Already Divorced And Now Need To Modify Judgment

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When you complete your divorce in California and have your final judgment, there may come a time when you need to make modifications to your judgment.  This may be to modify things such as child support, child custody or spousal support which are the most frequently changed things.

Watch this short video where i explain how to divorce motions after your divorce is finalized.



This can be accomplished by filing a stipulation with the court if the parties agree to the changes.  Otherwise, you need to file a motion with the court (called an RFO) and have it served on your spouse.

When it comes to serving divorce judgment modifications on your spouse after you divorce is finalized, you will usually have to serve it personally on the other party.  When i say you, i mean you have to have someone else personally serve them and have the proof of service filed with the court.

 

California Divorce – Serving Divorce Papers When Spouse Out Of Country

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We come across clients who have spouses living out of Country and out of state pretty often so wanted to write this article which discusses how you can serve your spouse when going through a California divorce when they are living out of state or out of country.

(watch this short video where I explain)



Lets first talk about when your spouse lives out of state. If you spouse lives out of state, the easiest way to serve them would be to send via certified mail, return receipt.  This is an acceptable method of serving your spouse when they are out of state.  Just don’t forget to use the return receipt, that little green card, because you will need that to file your proof of service form.

Now lets talk about out of country.  I would suggest you simply serve this by mail.  You can have a copy of the divorce papers mailed along with a form called a notice of acknowledgment of receipt.  The other party would sign this form and return it and you would file the notice of acknowledgement with the proof of service.  This form lets the court know that the other party voluntarily accepted the divorce papers by mail.

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm specializing in providing affordable divorce services throughout California.  Let us help you with your divorce case and make sure it gets done correctly the first time.

Filing For Divorce Does Not Mean You’re Divorced

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I can’t tell you how many calls i get every week where someone tells me that they filed for divorce years ago only to learn they never completed their divorce.

I bring this up because I want to tell you how this can happen.

Today i got a call from someone who said they already have all the divorce papers completed and just wanted me to file and serve them for them.  ( I already suspected this would not be the case) but said go ahead and send over what you have and i will take a look at it.

She emails me “all” the divorce papers she completed.  What did i find?  All she had completed was the initial divorce papers that need to be filed and served.  I told her that this is just the first set of forms to get the divorce case filed.

She said she was told that these were the only forms that she needed to file for divorce.  Ahh! That makes sense.

These are the only forms that you need to “file” for divorce, but are far from all the forms you need to complete your divorce.

And so begins the confusion about divorce and the divorce process.  This person only had the initial divorce forms needed to get the case started, not finished.

I was discussing our fees for us to provide our service and she asked why she would have to pay the fee if she “already completed ALL the divorce forms?”

I had to tell her that she has not completed ALL the divorce forms and had only just begun.  She said she must have not understood.  That part i agreed with!

Divorce and the divorce process in California is not something you want to attempt on your own.  Despite my warnings, many still do.

Had i not intervened and helped clarify how the California divorce process works, this would have been another person who “filed” for divorce and assumed their divorce was complete.

Make sure you finish you divorce.  How do you do that?  Give us a call and we will complete your entire divorce from start to finish and help save you money on court filing fees.

How To Avoid Paying Court Fees During California Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

If you are about to get divorced in California you have probably figured out or soon will learn that it costs $435 to file for divorce in most of the Counties in California.  Some are a bit higher and it seems every year the costs go up.

If you are like most folks you are trying to find a way to save money on your divorce.  So i wanted to explain a little trick we use to help you avoid paying court fees during California divorce.

I just got off the phone with someone calling regarding our services and explained this very thing. They were going to attempt to complete their own divorce and were saying that they were going to file the case and then have the husband respond.  The problem with this is that they are going to have to pay the $435 twice.  Once to file and again to file the response.

Now they have paid $870 in court fees and have to complete their divorce case on their own. Many people are not aware that there are 2 fees in a divorce.

But here is how you avoid paying the court fees and how we process our cases.

First, we file the divorce case in the name of the person not working and who does not have an income.  In this case it was the wife.  We would complete a fee waiver to have the court fees waived.

Next, we don’t have the respondent file a response.  Filing a response is not necessary when the parties agree.  Now there are no court fees.

We do this to help offset the costs of our service.  Because we save you money on the court fees, it almost makes the cost of our service free.  Now we can’t do this on all cases if both parties are working, but at the very least we will save you $435 by not having the respondent file the response.

Divorce in California is tricky and you need to know how to navigate the court system.  Don’t try to do this on your own.  You should hire us to complete your divorce case.  In most cases it will cost you very little to have your divorce case professionally prepared and you won’t have to worry about doing it yourself or going to court.

No You Can’t Use Facebook To Serve California Divorce Papers

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Okay, I keep reading articles on the internet which makes you believe you can serve divorce papers using Facebook.  The captions say, “Court approves use of Facebook to serve divorce papers” or some similar heading. If you just read the heading one would think you could now actually serve divorce papers using Facebook.

(watch this quick video where we discuss this)


Facebook is not an approved way to serve divorce papers. There are strict guidelines on how service of divorce papers, known as “process of service” is to happen.  There are a few ways to serve divorce papers, however the way it is supposed to be done is by personal service.  This means someone has to personally hand the divorce papers to the person being served.

The reason personal service is necessary is because it is the only way that the court really knows that the person the divorce papers are intended for actually received them.  The person that does the personal service would then complete and sign a proof of service form which would be filed with the court.  That way if there is any dispute on whether the person was served or not the court could call that person in and ask about the details of the service of the divorce papers.

 

California Full Service Divorce No Matter Where You Live

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We are a full service California divorce firm and can handle your divorce case regardless of where you live in California. We work with all the California divorce courts and regardless of where you live, we can assist you.

Our main office is in Los Angeles County and we get calls all the time from people in other counties asking if we can assist them.  The answer is yes!  The California divorce process and divorce forms is uniform throughout California so there is no difference in what county we are filing your case.

We have filed in pretty much all the different counties in California.  I know for certain we have filed in all the major counties, but there are some few very small counties in northern California we may not of hit yet.

But how do we do this if you are not located near us?  Easy. We have a systematized process in place that allows us to prepare all your documents via phone, fax and email.  We file directly with your local court with our seamless process and would guess that about half of our business is done remotely without clients ever coming into our office.

Even folks that live nearby frequently ask to have us prepare their California divorce case via email because of their busy schedules. Sad that people are so busy they can’t even get divorced, but that is California for you.

If you are looking for an affordable easy solution to have your California divorce completed for you, please give us a call.  We do handle California divorce cases anywhere in California.

Are Divorce Rates Higher When You Marry Due To Pregnancy?

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Are Divorce Rates Higher When You Marry Due To Pregnancy?

I was recently reviewing and approving the complete divorce judgments we were submitting to the divorce courts for approval and noticed that several of the divorce judgments were divorce cases which the date of marriage was about 1 month prior to the date of marriage.

This caught my attention, not only because i came across 3 in a row, but because it made me think if the divorce rate is higher for those who get married only because they were pregnant and did not want to have a baby together without being married.

For these couples that we completed their divorce case for them, the relationship obviously did not work out and I wonder how many people get married for only this reason.

I wouldn’t think that being pregnant as the only reason to get married would be a good idea. I can certainly see that there may be pressures from parents and even society that says you should be married if you are going to have a baby.  But it almost seems that it is adding insult to injury.

Meaning you accidentally got pregnant while dating and maybe had no plans on getting married.  You might be young and just made a mistake.  So you decide that you better get married.  For the couples we helped with their divorce, this just added an additional layer of stress now having to get a divorce after just a few months or years of marriage.

I am sure there is no right or wrong answer and that there are some of these marriages that wind up happily ever after.  But i will say that I am noticing a change in how our culture looks at divorce, especially from the younger generation, say in their 20’s and 30’s.

They are taking a much lighter approach to divorce in most cases and calling it quits quickly after marriage.  I often comment that they treat it similar to returning a automobile you would lease.  It just didn’t work out and it’s time to return it.  I know this is not the best analogy, but i think it makes the point.

We are a full service divorce paralegal company headquartered in Santa Clarita, CA and serving all of California with our affordable divorce service.  Please give us a call for a free divorce consultation at 661-281-0266.