092: Having Trouble With Filing Your Own California Divorce

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In this episode, I wanted to talk to the folks of California who have already filed their Divorce case and are having trouble getting their Divorce finished.

My name is Tim Blankenship. We have a licensed and bonded Legal Document Preparation Firm.

We specialize in Divorce all throughout California. And we get lots of calls as new clients calling us who haven’t started their Divorce and they want us to start from the very beginning.

And handle their Divorce case from start to finish. But we also get a lot of calls where people have started their Divorce on their own.

And if you have done that then this podcast is for you. What we find is a lot of people want to save money.

Make sure to listen to the latest podcast.

091: Getting Married Young Results In Higher Divorce Rates

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In this episode, we’re talking about a new study that was done. And the study was done by the University of North Carolina.

And this study kind of change what the beliefs were about one of the leading causes of Divorce.

Now what this article went in to and what this study had to do with is finding out and learning more about does cohabitating or just living together with your soon to be spouse have anything to do with Divorce.

And I think it was a common held belief that in the past over the last few decades that if you live together prior to marriage that, that was one of the leading causes of Divorce or it was a cause of Divorce.

Make sure to listen to the latest podcast.

Santa Clarita Flat Fee Divorce

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Santa Clarita Flat Fee Divorce

We are the only Santa Clarita Flat Fee Divorce service in the Santa Clarita area. If you want an affordable divorce solution in Santa Clarita, you have come to the right spot.

As of this article, we are processing between 30 and 40 new divorce cases in Santa Clarita every month.  And as our Santa Clarita Flat Fee Divorce service continues to grow throughout California we expect this number to continually rise.

People are getting fed up with the high costs of hiring an attorney and it seems everyone knows somebody in Santa Clarita that has paid tens of thousands of dollars to an attorney in Santa Clarita.  Most of them could have used our service and saved a lot of money with our Santa Clarita Flat Fee Divorce service.

The people who have used our Santa Clarita Flat Fee Divorce Service have given us rave reviews online.  Not only is the cost very affordable, the service that we provide goes way above the fee we charge for our service.  We could charge a lot more for our Santa Clarita Flat Fee Divorce Service, but we wanted the public at large to be able to obtain professional divorce services in Santa Clarita and not have to break the bank to get a divorce.

If you are looking for a low cost, affordable option to getting a divorce in Santa Clarita, please give us a call.  Not only do we provide a Santa Clarita Flat Fee Divorce Service, but we also provide free phone consultations.  We want to talk to you about your specific circumstances so we can provide you with the information you need so we can complete your divorce for you.

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm.  That means we do everything from filling out the forms, going to court and filing your documents as well as take care of all the policy and procedure issues with the court so you can go on with your life.

Let our Santa Clarita Flat Fee Divorce Service take care of your divorce for you.  All we do is divorce in Santa Clarita and it is our specialty.

 

090: Filling Out Divorce Forms Is Just Half The Battle In California Divorce

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

In this episode, I want to talk about what the true value of our service in preparing divorce documents in California really is.

I get a lot of people that come to me and say, “Tim, I went to look at the forms online and it looks like it’s something I can do”.

I’ve heard a lot of people try to do it by themselves, they’ve to the court website and try to use the forms, fill out the paperwork and usually what will happen is they’ll get frustrated and decide to hire us to prepare their California divorce documents.

But us, as a legal document preparation firm filling out your forms for you is only one half of service and is not even the important part of the service.

Make sure to listen to the latest podcast.

Telling Your Spouse You Want A Divorce | Santa Clarita Divorce

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How To Tell Your Spouse You Want A Divorce 

One of the hardest things you will have to do when you decide you want to get a divorce in Santa Clarita is to tell your spouse.  When and how you do it is completely up to you, but i can tell you from experience that sooner vs later is usually better.

We have been helping folks going through divorce throughout California and many people tell us that there is some apprehension in letting their spouse know that they want a divorce or have filed for divorce.

I can certainly understand that nervousness that is present when you know you need to do something unpleasant such as filing for divorce or telling your spouse you want a divorce.  Telling your spouse you want a divorce is the first big step and I have had plenty of clients who have asked the best way to tell their spouse they want a divorce.

I think the best way to tell your spouse you want a divorce depends a lot on your specific situation.  When you go through a divorce, it is going to be important that there is good communication throughout the process to ensure you have a cooperative divorce in Santa Clarita and don’t end up fighting and spending all your money one divorce lawyers.

Once you decide to tell your spouse you want a divorce, it may be a good idea to find a time that would be appropriate, perhaps when the kids are gone or one the weekend when you don’t already have the rush around for work and school, etc.  While divorce is a tough subject and will be a stressful time, adding the fact that one of you is headed out for work or just returned from a long days work won’t make things much better.

When going through the divorce process in Santa Clarita, there probably is not good time to tell your spouse, but it has to be done.  If you want your divorce to go smoothly, you are going to have to communicate with you spouse, now more than ever.  It won’t be easy, but we can help you  get through the divorce process in Santa Clarita or anywhere in California.

We are a full service divorce paralegal firm here in Santa Clarita and serve all of California with divorce preparation.

Cooperative Divorce In Santa Clarita

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Cooperative Divorce In Santa Clarita

We talk a lot about going through a cooperative divorce in Santa Clarita and how you can best accomplish this.  A lot of it has to do with taking the high road as it pertains to what you ask for and what you get in the divorce process in Santa Clarita.

You can listen to this podcast where we talk more about taking the high road when going through divorce and how it will assist you in having a cooperative divorce in Santa Clarita

What I mean to say is that when you go through a cooperative divorce in Santa Clarita, it usually is going to feel as if you are giving more than you are getting out of your divorce.  It may seem as if you are bending over backwards to ensure you end up going through a cooperative divorce in Santa Clarita and not end up having to hire an attorney for your divorce.

What is interesting is that while you may feel that this is the case, your spouse probably feels the same way.  It takes two people to work towards a cooperative divorce in Santa Clarita, but the the time you take with your spouse to ensure you have a cooperative divorce will pay itself off.

When you work towards a cooperative divorce, you will end up with much better results in your divorce.  Much better than if you hired a divorce attorney in Santa Clarita or ended up letting a judge make the decisions in your divorce.

While it may seem more difficult to sit down with your spouse and talk about how you want to divide up your property or about your children or about finances such as child support and spousal support, if you can just find the time and commitment to sit down and figure out something between you that is fair and reasonable to both you, you will have a divorce agreement that will last much longer than if you didn’t work together to figure your divorce agreement out on your own.

We work with folks who want to have a cooperative divorce in Santa Clarita. We work with couples who want to attempt to come to an agreement regarding the terms of their divorce in Santa Clarita.

We serve all of California with our full service divorce process and are located right here in Santa Clarita with our cooperative divorce service in Santa Clarita.  Please give us a call for more information.

089: Filing Request To Enter Default In CA Divorce When Spouses Live Together

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Today we came across something interesting. We had a client who gives us a call. They were attempting to do their own divorce and they’re having trouble all along the way but specifically in the area of trying to file their request to enter default.

And when they came to us they had had the default rejected and it was for a reason that we hadn’t seen before. We’ve never had this problem and I don’t know if it’s because we are filing paperwork for folks in a professional manner and the courts know who we are or because these person are representing themselves.

But this is what it was in regards to. So the default was rejected, she had filed the request to enter default and it was rejected and the rejection letter from the court said, “If petitioner and respondent reside at the same address or the address of the respondent on the default request is different with the address on the proof of service, petitioner must submit a declaration under penalty of perjury explaining why.

Make sure to listen to the latest podcast.

How To Calculate Life Insurance To Protect Spousal & Child Support

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How To Calculate Life Insurance To Protect Spousal & Child Support

Tim: So how would you suggest someone calculate the amounts of coverage in those types of scenarios. Does there any way to factor that at all?

Jon: If that’s this whole purpose of this specific policies, I mean the other life insurance need might be taken place, then it’s a fairly simple calculation which is looking at how many years that there would be and how much per month in doing the Math and saying, ‘Okay, if it’s $500 a month for X number of years in calculating that out that would be a starting point.’

Tim: Okay.

Jon: Now that’s just to say that’s the alimony of the child support. That doesn’t mean that there is an opportunities especially when children are involved to say ‘You know what? I want to make sure that my children also have funding for their college education.’

Tim: Yes, I didn’t think about that but, yes.

Jon: And anything else or I want them to be able to have money to buy their first car, whatever it may be, regardless what happened between you and your spouse you don’t want the children to suffer at least financially and this is one way to ensure that, that doesn’t happen.

So the starting point is really, what is that monthly support, going to be times the number of months. But looking at some of these other issues are also important considerations.

Tim: So that’s just the very minimum, is the income portion? Let’s do a little bit of a Math.

Jon: Okay. I can do some Math.

Tim: Oh, I’ll make it easy.

Jon: Alright.

Tim: Let’s say your spouse is paying a $1000 a month.

Jon: Okay.

Tim: …for ten years.

Jon: Okay. So it’s a $120,000.

Tim: Okay. So if we took the very minimum, would you say $120,000 policy?

Jon: That would be the very minimum a $120,000 policy.

Tim:  Now just to be covering that part of —

Jon: Well cover that part now recognizing your five years into it, and if you’ve already paid $60,000 of it…

Tim: Yes.

Jon: So there’s a little bit of extra. But when you purchase a policy like this the assumption you have to make is what happens if something happened tomorrow?

Because that’s the worst case scenario and that’s what you have to plan for. So you can always make the decision later on to reduce coverage.

So if you’re getting close to the end and you don’t want to pay the full $120,000 you and your spouse can come to an agreement because remember your spouse is the owner of the policy.

So they have to agree to this.

Tim: Agree to this.

Jon: You may come to some other financial arrangement at that point to lower the coverage. It will only cover the remaining months.

Tim: Got you! So for purposes of the term of the policy in this scenario where we have some payment of $1000 a month for 10 years…

Jon: Right.

Tim: …would you say get a 10 year term policy? We’re talking term insurance.

Jon: Right, we’re talking term insurance. And again, if it’s only this issue, yes, because you’re my guest is that the ex-spouse isn’t necessarily looking to fund the life insurance beyond that.

So there might be some sort of one maybe when the children turn 18…

Tim: Yes.

Jon: Maybe when the one child turns 18 at that point. Well even with that, again, what’s best for your children, what’s best for your financial situation.

I know it’s not an easy conversation to have it at that point in time.

Tim: Right.

Jon: …with the ex-spouse, so, yet this is the very minimum but you will get things like how easy will it be for the spouse to go back to work which he’ll be able to go back to work if something happened.

Tim: Right.

Jon: What is her living arrangement? Is she some sort of situation where she’s getting the extra money beyond that 10 years?

So all these things should be factor on both sides and when these decisions had been made, how long to purchase this policy for and for how much the whole situation should be looked at on both sides?

Tim: And just in general life insurance regardless of Divorce these are things you need to look at regardless…

Jon: Right.

Tim: …I mean spousal support or keeping things going for your wife for you kids college and…

Jon: Yes, I mean the hardest things you hear stories are and I’m sure you’ve heard these stories too where something happens is somebody you know and they’re going around to people where just to get money to borrow them.

Tim: Yes.

Jon: I mean it’s just a really sad situation especially in most cases when life insurance isn’t all that expensive relatively speaking.

And it doesn’t benefit you or me if we’re the ones having ‘we-go’ but to known that my family is taken care of, is pretty important to me to know that my kids will still be able to do the things they wanted to do so even outside of the Divorce.

Life insurance is one of those it’s such a small investment for such a big potential benefit down the road.

Tim: Right.

Jon: And the worst case scenario, if you don’t use it? You don’t use it.

Tim: Yes. And you’re alive.

Jon: Yes, what a great scenario. We actually have policies that do return on premiums.

So if it’s out with it, they’ll actually give your money back.

Tim: Really?

Jon: There are policies like that now too.

Tim: Wow!

Jon: So there’s —

Tim: No reason not to have it.

Jon: no reason at least not to talk to somebody about it.

Tim: Right.

 

How To Agree On Realtor During California Divorce

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How To Agree On Realtor During California Divorce

Tim: Right! So we have people that come to us not usually disagreeing. They know they have to get rid of the property one way or another.

It’s either to sell it, refinance it, or even someone staying in the home and keeping the current mortgage if they can’t refinance.

At least our clients, we’re doing more amicable style cases here as opposed to litigated cases. And they’re trying to work on it.

But sometimes they have questions like what are my options?

So I brought up some other slides here that I wanted to kind of just go over, see if this is going to cooperate. Go down and up, okay.

Connor: One of the things that we find and I know we’ll probably get through this further in the conversation but when somebody is looking for a Real Estate Agent to handle their Divorce, there has to be a clearly laid out plan.

And it has to involve rules, rules that cannot be broken or sacrifice by either party including a Real Estate Agent.

So these are actually written out rules. How are all the parties going to communicate?

How are they going to express themselves throughout the transaction? How are they going to come to an agreement?

Because it could be for example you put a property on the market and at a pre-agreed to price from both parties, let’s say $500,000. And then one of the party changes their mind and says, ‘We want more.’

Tim: Right.

Connor: So now we’re kind of stucked. So all of these things professional agents that know Divorce is going to have them written out.

And there’s going to be rules. And all parties have to sign it.

Tim: So you have specific agreement kind of between them?

Connor: Absolutely!

Tim: This is not a Real Estate form? This is something that you have them kind of –

Connor: Correct.

Tim: Which actually say, ‘This is what we agree to do.’

Connor: Absolutely!

Tim: Smart.

Connor: And even with the form, I mean ultimately, is going to hold up in court? Who knows? But at least it’s going to keep us out of harms way because on that form itself there are other methods that hold me accountable and my staff accountable too.

Tim: Right.

Connor: For example, in the attorney world and you were a cop for a long time and so on so as I, that Ex-Parte Communication, the party is going and speaking with one another outside of everybody else’s ears when they shouldn’t be not speaking with those other parties, we establish that on this form that we have that our client signed that that’s not to take place.

If we’re all in agreement, I can’t accept the phone call from one of the sellers because it’ll takes two to get Divorced, right?

Tim: Right.

Connor: You can’t accept the phone call without having the other party involved. Even if it’s to ask me something that seems very innocent.

Tim: It’ll take one thing for them to say, ‘Oh, you’re talking to my spouse!’ and that’s it.

Connor: Done, yes. ‘Oh, I thought we had this agreement.’ and without the agreement all that stuff is null and void.

Tim: Yes.

Connor: So that’s why we have it all established that on papers. So when we get to that point of process and it’s happened.

When somebody call, ‘Hey Connor, it’s Mr. Smith. I know you’re taking care of our Real Estate with regards to our house and our Divorce and such. But I just had a quick question.’

Well, Mrs. Smith now finds out that Mr. Smith talked to me. And I actually gave him an answer even something innocent that doesn’t have to do with anything, now that’s a violation of trust.

Tim: Right.

Connor: So it has to be put down