If you are in the midst of going through your divorce, you need to be aware that the California divorce forms have been changed as of July 1, 2013.
Not all the forms are changed, but there were some significant changes that will cause you problems if you use the old California divorce forms after this latest update was completed.
The California divorce forms are updated approximately 2 times per year. There is not generally much notice and we usually find out by receiving our software update disks from our forms provider.
Watch the below video where we discuss a couple of the changes surrounding the disclosures requirements.
I have not had a chance to go through all the California divorce form changes yet, but did want to discuss what we have found thus far.
This relates to the declaration of disclosures which are required to be done in all California Divorce cases.
The courts are now saying that when you complete your preliminary declaration of disclosure in your California divorce case, you will also need to serve 2 years of tax returns. Some of the divorce courts in California had already required that, but this is a change for us in Los Angeles County.
Now onto the next issue with the changes. This is addressed to anyone considering using an online divorce form preparation company. I’m talking about the online divorce form companies that charge you a fee and say they will send you the forms.
In almost all cases, they never update their divorce forms. They are trying to provide divorce forms to every state in the U.S. and it is too costly to keep up with all the form revisions.
So what they do is send outdated form to you. I can’t tell you how many people call me after being scammed by one of these online California divorce form companies and could not get their paperwork accepted by the court and were faced with multiple rejections of their divorce paperwork.
I have written many articles on the topic of why you should not use an online divorce form company. I have literally beat it into the ground. But I am just one person trying to get the word out.
If you’re reading this, please make sure to use a licensed and bonded legal document preparation company. That is what we do. This way you know that you are getting someone who is certified to provide legal services and has all the updated and proper divorce forms.