Chatsworth Divorce Court Advised Client To Seek Counselling Instead of Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

We handle a lot of divorce cases and are usually the first to come across something that has changed.  In this case, we are seeing the divorce courts and some Judges specifically start doing things that are a bit differently.  I am putting that mildly because we are seeing some outright weird things.

This most recent issue was when a client had a total agreement with their spouse in their divorce.  I mean everything.  But the Judge at Chatsworth indicated that she wanted a hearing set so she could speak with our clients.  She did not indicate what the issues was.

So we set up the hearing for our client and asked them to report back on what they were asked.

Turns out the Judge started asking personal questions about their marriage and advised our clients that instead of getting a divorce that they should get counselling and work on their marriage.

If you ask me, it is not up to the court or a Judge to give marital advice.  Our client said she was crying in court because of all the personal questions that were being asked.

You can listen to the podcast where I discuss in more detail.

Saving Money On Your Santa Clarita Divorce

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I talk a lot about how to save money on your divorce. This video discusses the issues of people who hire divorce attorneys but run out of money before they actually have their divorce case finished. We discuss how you can save money by using our service to file your divorce papers. That way,

6 Months? Why Does Divorce Take 6 Months?

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As much as I talk about divorce, the divorce process and explain things to clients, the one thing that just keeps coming up is how long the divorce process takes. We’ll it takes 6 months. Yep, 6 months. Why? Because the court’s want you to have a change to work on the relationship. That is all.

In this video we talk more about how to process your divorce paperwork. Some folks think they need to wait 6 months to turn in their divorce agreements or judgment which is not true. There are certain timeframe restrictions on filing paperwork, but you don’t have to wait 6 months to turn in your agreements. Watch this short video for more information.

Avoid Identity Theft During Divorce

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When you go through a divorce you will be providing whatever company you work with, with just about all your financial and personal information.  This includes tax returns, pay stubs, credit cards and names and date of births or you and your children.

But nobody seems to ever worry about identity theft!

I have never been asked about our procedures for destroying files after we have completed a divorce case!

Los Angeles Divorce Courts Closed For Veterans Day 11/11/2015

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Just thought I would save a few people the pain of going to any of the Los Angeles divorce courts on Veterans Day on November 11, 2015.  For those of you who follow this blog or check this blog regularly for updates, I hope to save you a trip.

It seems that many people work on Veterans day and so people forget it is a Federal holiday and end up going to the courthouse forgetting that they will be closed.

So I just wanted to write this quick post to remind folks that the courts will be closed on Veterans Day 11/11/15.

California Divorce & Changing Your Name With Social Security

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As you may or may not know, when you go through a divorce you can make the decision if you want to go back to your former name.  This means, do you want to go back to your maiden name you had prior to marriage?

And no, you can’t use any name you want.  I get asked all the time.  You can go back to your former name only.

That said, if you decide you want to revert to you former name you can do so. The benefit to doing this during the divorce process is that you won’t have to file a separate name change case to change your name later down the road.

So when you get the divorce judgment back from court it is not only your judgment for divorce but the court making an order so you can go back to your former name.  This way you can take the judgment to the Social Security and show them so you can change your name back.

However, the Social Security Administration won’t accept any old copy.  They are requesting a Certified copy of the original. This means that you will have to go down to court and ask the clerks office to pull your divorce case, make a copy of the original and stamp it with a certified stamp to indicate that it is a certified copy of the original divorce judgment.

I wanted to write this because we had a client take a non-certified copy to the Social Security Administration to change her name back and she was turned away and obviously frustrated.

California Divorce & Changing Your Name With Social Security

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

As you may or may not know, when you go through a divorce you can make the decision if you want to go back to your former name.  This means, do you want to go back to your maiden name you had prior to marriage?

And no, you can’t use any name you want.  I get asked all the time.  You can go back to your former name only.

That said, if you decide you want to revert to you former name you can do so. The benefit to doing this during the divorce process is that you won’t have to file a separate name change case to change your name later down the road.

So when you get the divorce judgment back from court it is not only your judgment for divorce but the court making an order so you can go back to your former name.  This way you can take the judgment to the Social Security and show them so you can change your name back.

However, the Social Security Administration won’t accept any old copy.  They are requesting a Certified copy of the original. This means that you will have to go down to court and ask the clerks office to pull your divorce case, make a copy of the original and stamp it with a certified stamp to indicate that it is a certified copy of the original divorce judgment.

I wanted to write this because we had a client take a non-certified copy to the Social Security Administration to change her name back and she was turned away and obviously frustrated.

Los Angeles Divorce Courts Closed For Veterans Day 11/11/2015

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Just thought I would save a few people the pain of going to any of the Los Angeles divorce courts on Veterans Day on November 11, 2015.  For those of you who follow this blog or check this blog regularly for updates, I hope to save you a trip.

It seems that many people work on Veterans day and so people forget it is a Federal holiday and end up going to the courthouse forgetting that they will be closed.

So I just wanted to write this quick post to remind folks that the courts will be closed on Veterans Day 11/11/15.