Who Can Serve Divorce Papers

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

When you are going through the divorce process, one of the important things you will learn is about the process of service.  But probably one of the most important times you should be especially aware of how to serve divorce papers is when you have to serve the initial Summons and Petition.

The majority of divorce forms can be served by mailing copies of the filed documents to your spouse.  However, the divorce Summons and Petition must be personally served.  This means that the Summons and Petition must be hand delivered and in certain way.

Rules About Serving Divorce Summons and Petition

A person can act as a process server as long as they are over the age of 18 and not a party to the case.  This means you cannot serve your own divorce Summons and Petition.

People who can be used as process servers:

  1. A County Sheriff or Marshall
  2. A coworker
  3. A friend or relative
  4. A professional process server
  5. Anyone over 18 not a party to the case

I can’t say it enough times that you cannot serve your own divorce papers.  If you do the service will be not be good.  You could go all the way through the divorce process and find out your proof of service is defective because you served your own divorce papers.  The only thing that could save you is in the case where the respondent filed a response.  The filing of the Response is evidence that they have been served and they will determine jurisdiction to be that of the day the Response was filed.

The nice thing about working with our legal document preparation service is that we will take care of all the service of all your divorce forms.  In fact, we usually use an alternative forms of service for the Summons and Petition called the Notice of Acknowledgment and Receipt.

As far as all your other documents that need to be served, we will prepare a mail proof of service to send along with such documents like your Declaration of Disclosure or any other forms that you need served.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process

 

Using Notice of Acknowledgment of Receipt During Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Using Notice of Acknowledgment of Receipt During Divorce

When going through an uncontested divorce in California, there are several ways to complete the service of process.  Here, we are discussing the use of the Notice of Acknowledgment of Receipt during divorce.

The Notice of Acknowledgment of Receipt is considered a method of “substituted service”.  This simply means is can be used as an alternative to the normal process of using a process server.

The reason I like to use the Notice of Acknowledgment of Receipt is because for one, it saves my clients to have to pay a process server a fee to do this.  The second reason is because if you are going to go through an uncontested divorce, there should not be any reason your spouse will not agree to sign the Notice of Acknowledgment of Receipt.

This is the way this form works.  You have to have someone over the age of 18 and not a party to the divorce, prepare and mail the form indicating what documents are being served.  The notice of acknowledgment of receipt can be used to serve any of the divorce documents, including the Divorce Summons and Petition which normally requires personal service.

When you are using the notice of acknowledgment of receipt to serve the Summons and Petition of your divorce, you also need to file a proof of service of Summons, just the same way as if you had personally served the paperwork on your spouse.

When you are going through an uncontested divorce, using this alternate method of service is a good way to both save money and keep things from heating up during your divorce.  No one likes to have divorce papers handed to them by a stranger and being told they are being served.

Instead, use the Notice of Acknowledgment of Receipt when serving the Summons and Petition.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process.  We are headquartered in Santa Clarita, CA and provide a 100% online divorce service which means we can help you anywhere in California to get through the divorce process.

About Preparing A Divorce Motion For Child Support

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

About Preparing A Divorce Motion For Child Support

I have a new client that needs to file a motion for child support.   I help people prepare motions for child support and other orders such as Spousal Support all the time.  Aside from helping people complete the divorce process, this is probably the 2nd biggest thing I do.  In fact, in many cases we are filing for divorce and filing a motion for support at the same time.

When I am working with clients to prepare a motion, I usually tell them to write me a story about what the circumstances are.  If you are just filing for support, this can be as simple as stating the facts.

When it comes to child support, the amount of money you will pay or be paid depends upon how much time you have with the children and how much money each of the parties make.  There are child support calculators you can use to estimate what this figure may be.

I am currently working on a Post Judgment Child Support Motion (Request For Order).  Post Judgment simply means you have already been divorced and are asking for a modification of the orders in the Judgment.

In these Post Judgment child support motions, the issue generally is that the spouse with visitation has not complied with the amount of time share indicated in the divorce judgment.  So while the spouse paying child support is based on their income and the amount of time they spend with the children, what happens when they stop visiting as much as they said they would in the divorce judgment?

This is the reason for the current Child Support motion.  The father was supposed to have a certain amount of visitation time with the children.  But for several years, the father has not visited even half as much as he is supposed to per the divorce judgment.

What happens is that the children’s mom has the children much more than the judgement indicates.  Not that she is complaining about having more time, but it becomes unfair that the father gets to pay child support on a timeshare of say 50% when his actual visitation is only 20%.

If all things remain equal, meaning that the father’s and mother’s income remain the same, if we modify the amount of timeshare to 20% then the amount of support the father should have to pay should go up.  I say should because it is always up to a judge to decide.  But normally they use whats called “Guideline” support.

When you are trying to modify a previous order, just understand that there has to be some “Change in Circumstances” from the last time the order was made.  For instance, in the case described above, the change in circumstances could be that the father visits only 20% of the time now instead of the 50% he is supposed to.

If you need help filing a motion for child support or any other type of motion, I can help.  We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process.  We provide a 100% online divorce solutions headquartered in Santa Clarita, California and can help you anywhere in Los Angeles County.

Clients Impressed With Online Divorce Service

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Clients Impressed With Online Divorce Service

Today was a busy day in the divorce legal service industry despite being Veterans Day, which by the way I am proud to say I am one.  Having served in the Marine Corps many moons ago, I look back and it is hard to believe how much time has passed since Desert Storm.

In any case, today was a perfect example of how our 100% online divorce service works.  I met with a new client online using GoToMeeting which allows me to share my computer screens so the client on the other end can see what I am doing.  Doing this serves many purposes.

First, It is much like meeting in person, but much more convenient for my clients.  This new client of mine had never been on a GoToMeeting type system and was immediately impressed that she could see my screens.

Prior to our meeting starting, I had spent some time getting some of the divorce forms ready by filling out the Caption portion of the forms.  The caption is just the top part of the divorce paperwork where indicate your name, address and phone number and indicate if you are represented by an attorney or representing yourself.  It also includes the boilerplate information such as the court address and the names of the Petitioner and Respondent.  I try to get these done before meeting with my clients, because it can take quite a bit of time to type this information, especially when you are talking about filing a new divorce case.

We spent just over 2 hours preparing the initial divorce paperwork along with a Motion called a Request For Order.  This Request For Order (RFO) was for child support, child custody and child visitation.  And because we were filing a motion, we also had to complete the income and expense declaration as any time you file a motion that has to do with money, you need to complete an income and expense declaration.

Once the divorce forms were all completed, we went through one last time and I had the client verify all the information was correct.  Once that was done, I emailed the completed forms so she could sign them and send them back to me.  Once I receive them back, I will be filing them with the San Fernando Branch of the Los Angeles Superior Court

Today’s activity was a perfect example of why our online divorce service is so effective.  I have yet to have anyone not working with me online to complete their divorce forms.  In fact, most have been impressed. Others who are unfamiliar with screen sharing and other online technology are generally surprised and say how easy it was to complete their divorce online with our divorce legal document preparation service.

You can always call us to get more information about our legal document preparation service.  We specialize in divorce and provide a 100% online divorce solution.  We maintain this model in an effort to keep our costs down so we can pass those savings on to our customers.

We are located in Santa Clarita, Ca and through our online divorce solution are able to serve all the Courts in Los Angeles County.

Best Divorce Service In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Are  you looking for the best way to get through your divorce?  It is a good idea to do your homework to see what the best way to divorce might be.

You do have a few options.  You can hire a divorce lawyer, do your divorce yourself, or use a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in divorce.

There is a 80% chance that you will either do your own divorce or use our services to prepare your divorce forms.  This statistic is based on the Courts reporting that only 20% of divorcing couples actually use an attorney to get divorced.  Of those 20% that use an attorney, many of those could have completed the divorce by using a divorce paralegal service like ours and saved thousands of dollars.

Of course, we are here to toot our own horn and tell you we are the best divorce service in Santa Clarita.  We feel this way for a couple of reasons.  First of all, we are the only divorce paralegal service that is licensed and bonded by the County of Los Angeles to prepare divorce documents.  Second, is that we only specialize in divorce and have years of experience doing it.

In fact, we have even worked in the divorce courts and self help centers in Los Angeles.  Additionally, we have worked for some of Santa Clarita’s largest family law firms.

So while our opinion is a little jaded on who offers the best divorce service in Santa Clarita, we encourage you to give us a call to see if using our divorce paralegal service in Santa Clarita is a good option for you.  We will be the first to tell you if we think you divorce case is better suited for an attorney.  But as we said at the beginning of this article, there is only a small chance you will have to spend thousands of dollars using a divorce attorney.

 

How Long Does Divorce Take In California

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

How Long Does Divorce Take In California

As a licensed and bonded legal document preparation firm located in Santa Clarita, California, we are asked often how long the divorce process takes in California.

Most are not pleased to learn that the divorce process takes at a minimum of 6 months plus 1 day.  But when does the clock start ticking on this six month process and why does it take 6 months.

To answer the first question, the clock does not start ticking when you file the divorce papers as most people think.  The 6 month clock starts from the time you serve your spouse with the divorce papers.  Keep this in mind when you are planning to get divorced.  There may be reasons why you would want to file and get your spouse served for the sole purpose of starting the clock on the 6 months waiting period.

Now for the second question on why there is a six month waiting period. California calls it a cooling off period.  I think that speaks for itself.  The California divorce courts want there to be a period of time where they allow the married couples to reconcile their marriage.

But don’t think that the 6 months cooling off period will be what holds up your divorce.  In fact, it will probably take longer in many cases.  As of know the courts are so backlogged with divorce cases and reviewing judgments that is it taking them 2 months just to review your judgment paperwork.  And if your judgment is rejected, you just added on another 2 months, at least, before your divorce can be finalized.

There is a way around this, however.  There is nothing that says you cannot get all your divorce paperwork done in the first few months of the divorce process and submit your divorce paperwork early, prior to the 6 month cooling off period ending.

What we do when possible is get all the divorce paperwork done within the first 3 to 4 months and submit it to the court for review.  Knowing that it takes about 2 months before they will actually get to the judgment to review, we find that the courts will still sign off on the judgment, but will post date the effective date of the divorce to a date that is 6 months and one day after the original divorce petition was filed.

We are a divorce service that is headquartered in Santa Clarita, CA and serve all the courts in Los Angeles County.  We provide a 100% online divorce process

No Assets – No Debt Divorce In Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

No Assets – No Debt Divorce In Santa Clarita

Going through the divorce process is a lot of paperwork.  If you take emotion out of the picture, the divorce process comes down to simply dividing up your assets and debts.

Yes, there are other issues when you have children, etc., but the a huge chunk of the divorce process deals with financial issues.

To file for divorce, you complete a Summons and Petition.  That notifies the court and the other party that you intend to divorce.  After that, all the paperwork deals with assets and debts.

The next step after filing for divorce is to prepare your Declaration of Disclosure.  This is where you will list all your assets and debts on the Schedule of Assets and Debts and you will list your income and expenses on the Income and Expense Declaration.  This process is called disclosure and represents the bulk of the divorce forms you will fill out when going through divorce.

So in essence, divorce is about money.  It’s about who is getting what and who is going to pay for what.  Does it take a divorce lawyer to complete this paperwork?  We think not.

Even if you have no assest and no debts, you still have to complete the financial disclosures during the divorce.

But what if you have been separated for a long period of time?  Do you still have to disclose all your financial information?  In short, Yes! I have had clients who have been separated for as long as 10 years and are just getting around to filing for divorce.  For all intesive purposes, they have been living separate lives.  Now, they are being asked to disclose all their assets and debts and income information to someone they have not communicated with for over 10 years.  Odd as it may be that you have to show all your finaces at this point, the fact of the matter is you still have to.

We specialize in providing an affordable divorce service in Los Angeles County.

 

Why You Should Not Buy Divorce Forms In California

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Why You Should Not Buy Divorce Forms In California

If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times, don’t buy your divorce forms.  It is completely unnecessary.

Why?  Because the California divorce forms are all available for free from the various County websites. I have even gone as far as to prepare a video on how to find the free fillable California divorce forms.

It frustrates me a little when I receive a call from a new client who says they purchased their divorce paperwork from some online company and now have a stack of divorce paperwork with absolutely no idea how to complete it.

Most of these online forms selling companies are hoping for exactly that.  That you will receive your divorce paperwork in the mail and have no clue how to fill it out.  They want you to call them back up and ask for them to prepare your divorce forms for you.  In fact, if you don’t call them, they will call you to ask if you need assistance filling out your divorce forms.

It should be a crime to sell divorce forms you can get for free to people for several hundred dollars.

I have seen these divorce forms they mail to people.  A box full of divorce forms.  In fact, they mail you every divorce form there is.  Most of which you will never need.

There is a better solution to buying your California divorce forms and attempting to do the paperwork yourself.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process.  We don’t just sell you forms.  We will prepare each of the divorce documents and get you entirely through the divorce process.  This includes filing and serving all your documents and keeping your apprised of the next steps and court procedure.

For more information about our specialized divorce service, please give us a call.  We are headquartered in Santa Clarita and serve all the courts in Los Angeles.

Do I Need Therapy During Divorce | Santa Clarita

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Do I Need Therapy During Divorce | Santa Clarita

I’m not an advocate for therapy, in fact I don’t understand it.  Maybe it’s because I am a guy and guy’s don’t like to share.  I really don’t know.  But if you feel you might need a little therapy during your divorce you might want to check out what the folks over at Divorce Detox are doing.

I am not making any recommendations, I just happened across their blog and found it interesting and thought I would share a few of their links.

According to their website they have a Divorce Detox workshop that includes a workkbook, group texting, access to consults in between session and the Divorce Detox Survivial Kit.

I was interested in the divorce detox survival kit.  It says it is a must for anyone going through the divorce process who wants valuable, expert advice and tangible support to survive and thrive from divorce.

You get daily support, expert advice, resources, inspiration, as well as access to a nurturing community plus monthly group coaching calls.

It may be worth your time to peruse their site if you are considering getting some therapy during your divorce.

The majority of my clients most likely are not in need of therapy during their divorce as they are mostly amicable, uncontested divorces in Santa Clarita and Los Angeles area.  This does not mean that there is not some emotional grief, just that they are working towards getting through the divorce without involving attorneys.

Experts say that going through an uncontested divorce can have the least amount of emotional impact on divorcing spouses.  This makes sense as contested divorces means going through trials in court which only make things worse.

We are a licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process.  We are located in Santa Clarita, California and serve all the courts in Los Angeles County.

Please give us a call to discuss your particular circumstances and learn

 

Why Khloe Kardashian Filed For Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Why Khloe Kardashian Filed For Divorce

While Khloe Kardashian has not yet filed for divorce, it is rumored that the divorce between Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom is coming to an end.

There have been tons of tabloid talk about the possibilities of them getting divorced.   Some are saying that the reasons they are possibly getting divorced is because Khloe cannot conceive children.  Beleive what you want, I don’t invest much time in the tabloids, but found this article posted by The Hollywood Gossip Blog something worth commenting on.

High profile divorce cases are all over.  I don’t understand the facination with following the gossip, but am interested in how the divorce cases progresses.

These types of divorce cases are one’s where a divorce attorney is necessary.  You won’t find me saying that much, because I am such an advocate for uncontested, amicable divorces.  But where there are significant assets involved, you certainly need an attorney involved.   And yes, it is going to be expensive any way you cut it.  But these folks have the money to burn, so they might as well hire the best in the business.

Usually, I write about why you should not hire a divorce attorney and instead just consult with attorneys.  This is because I don’t work with celebrities getting divorced.  My clients are intead looking for a way to keep the costs down.

Many have called divorce lawyers and found out how expensive it is just to complete an uncontested divorce.  They are relieved to have found a flat fee divorce service that is able to help them complete all the divorce paperwork for a fraction of the cost of using a divorce lawyer.

When considering a divorce in Los Angeles, make sure you use a reputable licensed and bonded legal document preparation service that specializes in the divorce process.